The Wait

How do I cope with waiting for my next therapy appointment?

Short answer

Waiting for your next appointment can bring real distress, even when you know help is coming. A 2026 conceptual paper named this pattern waiting anxiety. It describes racing thoughts, a tense body, and feelings that are hard to settle during a certain, positive wait. Naming it is the first step to easing it.

The research
Husain, W., and Jahrami, H. (2026). Waiting Anxiety: A Phenomenological Account of Anticipatory Anxiety During Rationally Certain and Pleasant Outcome Waiting. Psychiatry International, volume 7, issue 2, article 68.
Sample None. This is a conceptual paper that names and describes a pattern. It did not count people or test coping methods.
Published 2026
Journal Psychiatry International
Waqar Husain and Haitham Jahrami set out to name something that had gone mostly unnamed. Their paper is a conceptual account, not an experiment. It does not count participants or test treatments. Instead it draws on existing theory and lived description to describe a pattern the authors call waiting anxiety. Here is the puzzle they start from. Anxiety is usually tied to a threat, to the chance that something bad might happen. But people often feel keyed up and unsettled while waiting for something good that is almost sure to arrive, like an approaching wedding, a confirmed promotion, or an approved visa. The outcome is positive. The outcome is basically certain. And still the wait is hard. The authors describe three threads that run through this kind of distress. The first is cognitive rumination, the mind circling the same thoughts about the wait. The second is physiological arousal, the body staying switched on and tense. The third is difficulty with emotion regulation, a struggle to settle those feelings back down. They argue this paradoxical distress is common, under-recognized, and worth taking seriously on its own terms. Because this is a framework rather than a trial, it maps the experience and offers language for it. It does not measure how many people feel it, and it does not prove that any one coping method eases it.
Read the paper

What does this mean for you?

Here is the plain version. Waiting can be its own kind of hard, even when nothing is wrong. You can know that your appointment is coming, that it will probably help, and still feel restless, foggy, or on edge while you wait. This paper gives that feeling a name and a shape. That alone can be a relief, because an unnamed feeling is easy to read as a sign that something is broken.

A fair note on fit. The paper describes waiting for outcomes that are both certain and pleasant, like a wedding or a new job. Waiting for a therapy appointment is not exactly that. You may not feel the wait as pleasant, and the outcome is care, not a single happy event. So treat this as a lens, not a perfect match. What carries over is the core idea. The wait itself can stir up rumination, a tense body, and feelings that are hard to settle, even when help is on the way.

Now the honest limits, and they matter. This is a conceptual paper, not a study. The authors did not run an experiment, count people, or compare coping methods. They built a framework and argued for it. That makes it useful for naming and understanding the experience. It does not, on its own, prove how common waiting anxiety is, or which responses help most. For that, careful studies still need to be done.

There is still a practical reading here. If the stretch before your next appointment feels heavier than the appointment itself, you are not imagining it, and you are not doing therapy wrong. The wait is a real part of the experience. Knowing that the churn tends to show up as circling thoughts and a keyed body can help you meet it with a plan, instead of reading it as proof that you are slipping.

The takeaway

Terms in this page
Between-session support Grounding

This is the work Asendar™ was built for: the wait before and between sessions, when the mind can churn and the days can feel long. If you want a simple read on where your head is today, take your Mental Readiness Score.

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People also ask

Is it normal to feel anxious while waiting for a therapy appointment?

Yes. Feeling restless or on edge during a wait is common, even when you trust that the appointment will help. A 2026 conceptual paper described this as waiting anxiety, a pattern of circling thoughts and a tense body that can show up during a wait for a good, expected outcome. It is a recognized experience, not a sign that something is wrong with you.

Why do I feel worse waiting than I do in the session itself?

Part of it may be that the wait has no structure and no end you can act on yet. The mind fills that space with rumination, and the body can stay keyed up. The paper on waiting anxiety frames this as distress that lingers precisely because there is nothing to do but wait. A steady routine and grounding can give the time some shape.

What can I do to cope while I wait for my next appointment?

This conceptual paper names the problem rather than testing solutions, so treat these as general, educational ideas. Gentle grounding, a light daily routine, and staying connected to people you trust can steady a long wait. If the distress feels heavy, tell your care team, since the wait is a real part of the work and worth talking through.

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