What is it like living with asthma?

I was diagnosed with asthma as a young child, as was my sibling. We both struggled with it as children; we were regularly very wheezy and needed to be admitted to hospital a couple of times each. However, this was during the 1980s and preventative treatments have improved a lot. After the hospital admissions, we saw a consultant at the hospital every 3 months and I think a combination of the inhalers he prescribed and us just getting older and growing out of it a bit really helped.

Someone we knew quite well died from an asthma attack when he was 10 (my sibling and I were a similar age at the time). My mum said she had to fight her incredibly strong urge to wrap us up in cotton wool after that. But she felt strongly that we had to live our lives as normally as possible rather than in fear. Once our inhalers were sorted, we were both able to play sport regularly and remain active and sporty to this day. My mum always recalls how we went from not being able to run 20m without being breathless to running about throughout our sports matches.

My last trip to the hospital (I needed to use the nebuliser as an out-patient) was in 1991 so it's definitely under control now! Nowadays, it has very little impact on my life other than I take my preventative inhaler daily. If I get a cold or similar, it does tend to make me wheezy so I up the dose and use my reliever inhaler if necessary and usually that's sufficient. If not, it's normally because it's a chest infection and needs antibiotics from the GP. AFAIK, I've only had Covid once and it was extremely mild for me and didn't affect my breathing.

I have asthma. It's barely impacted on my life. When diagnosed as a child, nothing changed except I just had my inhaler with me. I do a lot of exercise (and historically have done) including IM. It's not life limiting at all. I've had a few serious attacks, had COVID twice, Glandular Fever (as a child) but I've cracked on.

In comparison, one of my cousins has asthma. We're a similar age, diagnosed at a similar time - she stopped all sports (her parents panicked and said she might die if she carried on...) and is obese tbh. Her breathing is awful and, if I am completely honest, I think a lot of her asthma related issues are made worse by how unhealthy she is.

I think a lot of managing asthma is actually about being healthy (eating well, exercising) and not being so scared of an attack that you're unwilling and unable to live your life.

My oldest daughters best friend has severe asthma, she had to be pulled from her football team, her dancing and gymnastics as she really struggled even with treatment. On the other hand, my friends daughter has mild asthma and is able to continue to activities as normal.

My daughter is a lot younger than your son and we are starting treatment for her asthma in Autumn, we do have a diagnosis via her respiratory team though. I have asthma but was only diagnosed as an adult.

My DS was the same as yours. In and out of hospital with chest infections and we were told he may have asthma.
He doesn't.
He's a healthy 28 year old now having grown out of his chest problems by the age of 5

As a child it was really hard in all honesty. I had a few life threatening attacks, nit being able to breath is obviously terrifying. If feels horrible too though, always felt really hot to me, kinda like when you have a skin reaction to something and it get shot and itchy and swollen.

As an adult I don't need a regular inhaler. I feel breathless and the same irritation in my throat from smoke and aerosols. I can only use roll on Deodorant, small amounts of perfume away from my face, can't use hairspray or air freshener. Chest infections are worse. But I haven't had an attack since my early teens.

But I still managed to do sports that I enjoyed and be successful enough to win fights as a boxer.

I have moderately severe asthma, my DD has a moderately severe peanut allergy. Neither impacts us day to day.

Wrt asthma, it's all about getting the preventer that works for you and staying on top of it. As you have sadly experienced, you do need to take it seriously as it can kill, but most people never get any where near that.

Do you need to speak to your GP about anxiety? It sounds like you're spiralling a bit.