A woman holding her hands on her chest and breathing deeply

What Are Your Feelings After An Asthma Attack?

For me, there are certain feelings I get after severe asthma attacks. My definition of a "severe" asthma attack is one that requires me to take systemic steroids, and usually, requires me to take time off work to rest and get better. Once I am feeling better, there are certain types of feelings I have. This is especially true when I'm very short of breath, and then suddenly, almost miraculously, get my breath back. There are certain feelings that fill my mind. Here are four of the feelings I'm thinking of.

4 Feelings I have after an asthma attack

Vulnerability

I feel I need to be careful. I feel I need to rely on others, and that I cannot go through this life on my own. I feel that I have a disease that makes me weak at times. It hits me like a Mack truck hitting a puppy dog but only wounding it and allowing it to survive and live another day.

So you learn to be more careful. Do I need to be more careful about wearing masks at work so I don’t pick up respiratory infections? Do I need to stop and smell the roses more often, as opposed to pushing myself to do that one more thing? Sure! And so, when my boss asked me to pick up a day next week, and she offered me double pay for a 12-hour shift - Man, that’s hard to pass up - But, I decided I needed to put my health first, so I passed on it. This is all part of the vulnerable phase I go through post asthma attack.

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Thankfulness

To all my great friends. I had my asthma attack at work, and I continued to push myself and get my work done despite not feeling well. In fact, I worked even up to the moment a friend of mine said, “John, you should talk to Dr. Friend about getting some steroids.” And she was right. And so I did. And Dr. Friend wrote me a prescription for steroids. One of my coworkers said she would come in to relieve me early. So I was able to go home. And my friends called often to check on me. I am just feeling so blessed to have such great friends. I feel a special appreciation for all those who are a part of my life and who care about me and want to help me in any way they can. For all this I am thankful. I’m also thankful for all the great medicines that we have access to today, such as the steroids that gave me my breath back. I’m thankful to be alive. I’m just thankful.

Euphoria

I just feel great. It’s kind of like when you have a great pain and all of a sudden it just goes away. It just feels great. You feel a sense of appreciation and joy. It’s euphoric. It’s just a good feeling about life. And this brings about all the other feelings I mentioned in this post. And it also helps me feel a sense of peace and joy in my mind. This leads me to think about so many things. It takes me deep into the philosophical part of my brain and brings about articles like this.

Religiosity

I feel so blessed. Having come so close to death, so to speak, and surviving gives me a sense that there is a higher power at play here. I feel so appreciative of this higher power. And so, it is in such a way that asthma brings me closer to my faith and my God. I pray and thank God. And I think that this will be a good time to start my Bible in a year that I’ve been thinking so long about doing. This also results in some very neat and interesting conversations with my Catholic coworkers.

What feelings do you have after an asthma attack?

These are some of the feelings I get after asthma attacks. What about you? What types of feelings do you get after recovering from asthma attacks? Please let us know in the comments below, or start a conversation in our forums.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Asthma.net team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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