It’s well-established that between 6-24% of people with asthma also experience anxiety, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I struggle with it too. The question now is: do I really want to go there? Well, why not? This is all about sharing our asthma experiences, so I might as well go all in.
It all began in 1984. Actually, it probably started much earlier. I had severe asthma. I was often short of breath, sometimes very short of breath. My parents took me to the emergency room frequently. I once wrote about staying up at night suffering from asthma without telling my parents. I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to bother them again. This was the anxiety. This was the needless fear. It wasn’t helpful for my asthma control. I needed help but was too anxious to ask.
In 1985, I was officially diagnosed with anxiety. I’ve mentioned before that I was admitted to an asthma hospital on January 8, 1985. While there, they determined that I had anxiety. At the time, I denied it. I was a kid, and admitting to a psychological disorder just wasn’t something I was ready to accept.
But it wasn’t all in my head. At this point, it was no longer believed that asthma was caused by anxiety. The counselors and psychologists I worked with never tried to convince me that my asthma was just a psychological issue. They did, however, work with me to understand that my anxiety was affecting my asthma. My constant worry often led to me forgetting to take my asthma medications, which in turn made me non-compliant with my treatment regimen.
I spent time on 7-Goodman, which was the floor for adolescent asthmatic kids until their asthma was under control. Once my asthma was stable, I would either go home or move to 2-May, the psychological unit for further treatment.
I feared 2-May. With my anxiety (which I denied), the idea of being admitted there threw me into a severe depression. I was angry, sad, and confused. I cried all day and night, slept little, ate little, and refused to shower. I was a mess.
But therapy helped. After a few weeks, I was lying on my bed when the sun came through the window. I had taken a Xanax, and at that moment, I started to snap out of it. From then on, things got better in 2-May. In fact, one day, I even wrote in my diary: “I like it here more than 7-Goodman. For one thing, there’s more freedom to roam the halls.”
I learned coping skills. My anxiety was addressed through therapy. I saw a counselor regularly and once visited a psychiatrist who prescribed Xanax to help me relax. The main focus, though, was education and teaching me coping mechanisms. I learned about my asthma, my medications, and why it was so important to follow my treatment plan exactly.
I also learned about adherence. A nurse gave me a pillbox and worked with me each week to make sure I sorted my medications. One day, she gave me all my medicine, and it became my responsibility to take them. Before that, nurses had made sure I took my meds.
They also helped me create an asthma action plan. It wasn’t called that back then, but that’s essentially what it was. When I felt symptoms, I was to sit down, drink a glass of warm water, and if my symptoms persisted, I was to use my rescue inhaler. If they still didn’t improve, I was to seek help and tell an adult.
I was taught relaxation techniques. Every week, some of us kids would gather in a quiet room or outside in the sun and practice relaxation exercises. We would close our eyes and relax to the soothing voice of a counselor or the sound of waves. These exercises were incredibly helpful, and I still use them today when I feel stressed. The best part is, no one even knows I’m doing them.
This all helped me gain control of my asthma. The combination of anxiety treatment and asthma management took more effort for me than it did for other kids without anxiety. In those days, if I had been at home, my doctor might not have diagnosed the anxiety, and my parents (no offense) lacked the experience to address it. That’s why asthma hospitals like National Jewish existed.
That was 30 years ago. I still have anxiety, but like many others who live with it, I’ve learned to cope. I developed coping skills on my own, but I also learned valuable strategies at the asthma hospital.
I still worry about things. Sometimes my thoughts keep me up late at night. But now, I have the tools to prevent my anxiety from taking over. It doesn’t control me as it once did. Through what I learned from my time at National Jewish and from my own experiences, I can manage my anxiety so it doesn’t interfere with my asthma control.
That’s how anxiety impacted my life, and the remedy was learning to manage my anxiety so I could improve my asthma management.
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