Post #4050398

2026-07-24 00:56 UTC

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org My last asthma attack was when I was 19. I'm 45 now. I've been fortunate enough that I don't need medication anymore. But as a child, I experienced asthma so regularly and so severely that I assumed it was how I was going to die — gasping for breath until my last. That's an awfully heavy thought for a child to bear. We had a gas stove. Ironically, I prefer cooking over a real flame, but my asthma was always worse around it. When I asked my doctor, he said it was all in my head. Even as a kid, I made the connection. But when I spoke up, adults dismissed me with, "That's just you," as if it wasn't even worth considering. Now there’s a study. Decades later, seeing the science catch up to what a terrified, wheezing kid already knew is both validating and maddening. It’s infuriating that the adults responsible for keeping me safe so easily dismissed a child’s direct observation as imagination. "It's all in your head" was just a convenient way to avoid listening, or worse, admitting that the family stove was hurting me. I still appreciate cooking over a real flame. But whenever I see a gas burner lit today, I don't just see heat — I see a stark reminder of how easily children’s voices are brushed aside, and how long it took for the world to admit the obvious.

Replies (3)

@argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-07-24 01:28

@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net Relevant trope: Not Now, Kiddo https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NotNowKiddo @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

Open ##4051912
@nske@ravenation.club 2026-07-24 07:55

@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org This was 100% my experience with childhood asthma. For some reason we never had an extractor fan and no-one would open the window while cooking either because of 'the cold'. My Mum is still convinced eating boiled potatoes gives her a migraine, seems pretty obvious it's the cooking that causes it with hindsight.

Open ##4065525
@epicdemiologist@wandering.shop 2026-07-25 14:03

@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org That's what my doctor told me about the migraines my birth control pills were triggering. Never had one before going on the pill; they always hit at the same time of my cycle; when I switched to another form of birth control, they stopped and never returned. Later on, someone bothered to do the research...

Open ##4089911