For someone who has never experienced an asthma attack, it’s not easy to understand how it really feels. However, when asthmatic patients try to describe their experiences, one of the most common answers is that it feels like taking deep breaths in cold air.

Asthma can vary in severity from one patient to another, but asthma attacks feel more or less the same for everyone. There’s just not enough air to breath – some will say. Others describe it as trying to breath under water. Or perhaps breathing through a coffee straw, through which only small amounts of air can be inhaled. Some people may describe it as being hit in the chest so hard that it’s hard to breathe. For other patients, it is like suffocating in an enclosed space, but very slowly. For those who feel pressurized in their chest during an asthma attack, it may feel like someone heavy is sitting on the chest.

No matter how the asthmatic patients explain it, the bottom line is the same – difficulty in breathing, and shortness of breath, like there’s just not enough air to breath in. There’s wheezing and coughing, to make matters worse. However, it is very important to take immediate treatment or medicine during an attack, to ensure it doesn’t turn out to be life threatening.