Just Breathe

Just Breathe

Have you ever thought about breathing? Everyone breathes every single day. It’s something our body does involuntarily so we don’t have to think about it. I can be controlled to some extent, we can hold our breath. But if we hold it long enough, we’ll just pass out and start breathing again. So we don’t have as much control as we’d like to think. A lot of people take breathing for granted.
When I was less than two years old, I was diagnosed with asthma. Asthma can be hereditary and is in my family. It runs through my family on my dad’s side. My dad has now outgrown his asthma, but my grandmother still has problems dealing with her asthma daily. My doctor assures me that there is still hope that I can outgrow my asthma still.


Asthma is a disease of the lungs. As said in the article, asthma can affect different people differently. It is represented by a range of symptoms including coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. The cause of these symptoms is from inflammation and/or constriction of the bronchial tubules.
A wide variety of things can cause an asthmatic reaction. Some of them are: allergens, emotional stress, physical activity, or infection. An asthma attack can be unpredictable at times. Although asthma is much twice as common in males as females, it is often more severe in adult women than adult men.
Fortunately, there are many drugs available to help fight the symptoms of asthma. These medications are very comforting and work very well in controlling asthma. The advances made in medicine concerning asthma have been amazing, but there is still no cure for asthma.


I read this article and it started me thinking. While everything is true, to me it makes asthma sound worse than it is. With all the medications available, my asthma never even bothers me until I get sick.
I found the greatest way to defeat something, is to learn all you can about it. This is what I did with asthma. In English 111, I wrote an entire paper on asthma and learned a lot. But I’m still learning more. When I read this article I learned that the ratio of boys to girls having asthma is 2.5:1. When I told my parents this, they were amused. I always manage to beat the odds. If anyone could get pneumonia in the middle of summer, I could. I suppose that’s why it was no surprise to them that I beat the odds in asthma.

I have always had a hard time thinking of asthma as a disease though. And I still do. Isn’t a “disease” supposed to be something the weak, sickly people have? I’m not weak or sickly! Even while I was trying to write this blog, I had to ask my mom if “diagnosed” was the right word. It seems you are only “diagnosed” with things like “cancer”.


Having a parent who had asthma has a lot of advantages. I learned a lot of “home-remedies” to treating asthma. As the article said, there are a lot of medications available for treating asthma, but I don’t like using them unless absolutely necessary. I do take a pill for long term relief, but when it comes to when immediate relief is needed…I would rather not. I guess it’s partially pride. I don’t want help breathing, even if help comes in the form of a drug.


Although I may be a bit prideful when it comes to admitting I need help breathing, I am not angry about the fact that I have asthma. I can honestly say it almost never crosses my mind to be angry. I have more often than not, seen my asthma as a blessing. I think God gave me asthma, not as a curse, but as a gift. That may be hard to believe. I have seen how scary it can be when for parents when their child was diagnosed with asthma and I would like to believe it brings them some comfort to see me: a young woman who grew up with asthma, but lives a normal life with asthma an afterthought, not a constant fear.


In conclusion, I have said it before. This is me. This is normal. I’m not afraid of doing whatever I want because of my asthma. I am in control of my asthma, not my asthma in control of me. I don’t let asthma hold me back and I never will.


Selgrade, M. (2006, April). What we know and need to know. Asthma and the Environment. Retrieved, March 26, 2010. from the Ebscohost database.