Hotashi

Which would prefer to have, assuming you had to choose one: asthma attack or anxiety attack? That is the decision I have been having to make in the past couple of months. For some reason my asthma medication triggers anxiety attacks for me. It only started happening this term, and previously my heartrate wouldn’t even increase with the use of my puffer. An increased heart rate is a symptom of asthma puffer medication, and it’s supposed to be harmless. Well…it’s not. My increased heart rate makes my body start to shake and I become really anxious. It’s like having to perform on stage and getting butterflies…only multiply that by 100 times the anxiety. So basically I have to choose between not being able to breath from an asthma attack or not being able to function with an anxiety attack.

I went to the health clinic on campus to talk to a doctor about it and I had to wait 20 minutes to see a nurse. She asked me a bunch of questions about my diet, my medication and my stress level. She basically concluded that I just need to “take it easy”…whatever that means. I usually suffer from shortness of breath from walking to campus and I used my puffer to breathe more easily. I admit that some of the attacks were provoked by my elevated stress level, but many times they weren’t. I wasn’t stressed or anxious at all for the latter times. And not everytime I use my puffer I get an anxiety attack or have an increased heart rate. I don’t smoke or do drugs, I don’t drink coffee (yes, I got through 5 years of post-secondary education without drinking any coffee), I rarely drink tea (and it’s usually watered down greentea), and I don’t drink energy drinks. So I have no idea what is triggering them. Anyway, I don’t know why they need to swipe my healthcard and get paid $40 for them to just tell me to take it easy. At least now it’s on my medical record. I hope it’s nothing more serious…but I have no idea what it could be.

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