Personal Experience: Living With Asthma

“I don’t want you to know anything about my illness. I don’t talk openly about it.” These were the first words I heard – from one of the closest people in my life – as he began to discuss his experience living with asthma. He prefers to conceal his illness as much as possible. He views himself as having a weakness and wants to hide it, and it was clear throughout the entire interview. We are extremely close, but I have rarely seen him use his asthma inhaler in the six years we have known each other. I have even gone with him to the emergency room when he had pneumonia; however, there is a deep-rooted belief that asthma equals weakness. I did not take it lightly when he agreed to be interviewed about the chronic illness he is living with. He …show more content…
Frequent hospitalizations and a lot of medication were not uncommon as a small child. In fact, the severity prompted his entire family to move to Colorado where they could find a drier climate and an excellent asthma doctor was there. He feels “terror” without his inhaler, but believes his asthma has helped him “to be strategic in not appearing less than.” He is highly skilled in many areas and partially contributes this to his experience living with asthma. He went on to say that “I had to be an artist. I had to be weird. I had to be something else to mask the asthma – to keep it under the radar. I have always been creative, but maybe it gave me more discipline to focus on my art. Also, he shared that is has increased his empathy and sensitivity and has drawn him to spending more time with …show more content…
He has some anxiety about getting sick, not having his inhaler, or losing it. He can experience panic if he doesn’t have access to his inhaler. He shared that “ I am more prone to pneumonia if I get a respiratory infection. It has made me a bit more cautious. I’m stuck with this inhaler – can’t live without it. I always have to have access to it. I’m bound to this fucking thing.” Lastly, he shared that his asthma attacks decreased with age and with the drier climate in Colorado. He likened an asthma attack to being a fish out of water. He explained “ I have to strain so hard to breathe in. After it is done – I’m exhausted. This is especially true if I have to go to the hospital for it. It is long and laborious. It is shitty. I try and hide asthma symptoms unless it becomes severe.” In conclusion, I learned a lot from this interview. Honestly, I never thought about how difficult it could be to live with asthma. It was part of the reason why I chose this person to interview. I could think of other illnesses that seem obviously challenging to me, so I purposely sought out an interview with someone who lives with an illness that I could potentially