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When it’s hard to breathe

For people in the United States who have asthma; for the mother, father, husband, wife, friend, teacher or coworker beside them; and for anyone who may one day be standing next to a person having an asthma attack. An asthma attack: the signs, and what to do. Helping someone else through one. The asthma action plan. What asthma is. The medicines and the inhaler. Triggers at home. Air, smoke, colds and disasters. Children and school. Paying for inhalers. Work. Finding help. And the words to say when you call or write. No quiz and no score. One thing at a time.

Right now

An asthma attack (coughing, wheezing, a tight chest, shortness of breath): use the reliever inhaler now, the way the person’s asthma action plan says. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says to use your reliever inhaler as soon as you start to have symptoms.
If the inhaler is not helping, or breathing is still very hard: call 911. Also if the person can’t walk or talk, has blue lips, is hunched over struggling to breathe, or passes out.
If it is someone else: help them sit upright, get their reliever inhaler, and stay with them. The American Lung Association’s first aid poster says: never leave them alone.
Thinking about ending your life, or about hurting yourself? Call or text 988, at any hour.

Where to start

The symptoms of asthma, from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: wheezing, which is a whistling sound when you breathe out; coughing, especially at night or early morning; shortness of breath; chest tightness.
In an attack: it says to use your reliever inhaler as soon as you start to have symptoms, to follow your asthma action plan, and to call 9-1-1 if your medicines are not relieving your symptoms during an asthma attack or if breathing is still very hard.
If it is someone else: the American Lung Association’s five steps. Help to an upright position. Access the individual’s quick-relief inhaler; never leave them alone. Follow the individual’s action plan. Get help if the inhaler is not helping, nostrils open wide, breathing is hard and fast, or they can’t walk or talk well. Call 911 if not breathing, unconscious, lips are blue, or struggling to breathe.
A young child: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says to call 9-1-1 if they seem drowsy, confused, or troubled, have a blue tint to the skin and lips, or have a fast heartbeat.
The plan: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says everyone with asthma needs their own Asthma Action Plan, and to work with your health care provider to create one.
The medicines: it says to take your medicine exactly as your doctor tells you, and that if you need to use your reliever medicine more and more, visit your doctor to see if you need a different medicine.
Triggers: it says to know your triggers and how to avoid them. Its list starts with secondhand smoke, dust mites, air pollution, pests, pets and mold.
Paying for it: the American Lung Association says to talk to your doctor or other members of your healthcare team about the cost of your asthma medicine. Its Lung HelpLine is 1-800-586-4872 (press 2).
To talk to someone now: call or text 988, at any hour. Or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
Work: the Job Accommodation Network, 1-800-526-7234, says it gives free, confidential help about job accommodations.

With JavaScript on, this page has more on each of these, and it builds the words to say when you call or write.

More help

Chest pain or pressure? When it might be a heart attack. A drooping face, a weak arm, strange speech? When it might be a stroke.
Diabetes too? When blood sugar goes too low or too high. A seizure? When someone has a seizure.
Afraid all the time, or low? When the worry won’t switch off, When panic hits and When the heaviness won’t lift.
Can’t afford care? When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
Mold, pests or smoke where you live? Ask for what helps you keep your home.
Looking after someone? When you’re caring for someone and Help at school for your child.
Seeing a doctor soon? Get ready for your appointment.
Changes at work? Ask for what helps you work.
All our free tools and Get help now.

General information from people who care, not medical or legal advice. We are not doctors, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, therapists or lawyers, and this page is not first aid training. We can’t tell you whether you have asthma, which medicine to take, how much or how many puffs, or what a school, a landlord or an employer must do in your case. Your own asthma action plan, written with your own health care provider, comes before anything here. If someone is struggling to breathe and their inhaler is not helping, call 911.

This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The facts come from pages read on October 2, 2026: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (About Asthma; Controlling Asthma; Living with Asthma, and its Asthma Action Plan; What to Do When an Emergency Occurs; Respiratory Infections and Asthma; and one line of How to Quit Smoking); the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (What Is Asthma?; Symptoms; Asthma Attack; Causes and Triggers; Treatment and Action Plan; Managing Asthma; and Asthma in Children); MedlinePlus (Asthma; Asthma in Children; and its Medical Encyclopedia page Signs of an asthma attack, which is licensed from a private company and which we report in our own words); AirNow.gov (AQI Basics); the American Lung Association (First Aid for Asthma, a poster; Create an Asthma Action Plan; For Parents of Children with Asthma; Work and Asthma; Finding Support; Treatment Assistance; and Lung HelpLine); the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (Drug Assistance Programs, and its contact page); and the Job Accommodation Network (Respiratory Impairments, and its contact page). The description of Crisis Text Line is from its own front page, read the same day. The American Lung Association, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and Crisis Text Line are private organisations describing themselves; we have no connection with any of them. We did not call or text any line, contact any provider, program or group, or search any directory. We did not read any clinical guideline, any drug or device label, any inhaler’s instructions, any first aid manual, any law or regulation, any state’s school rules, what any insurance plan pays for, or the research behind any statement; where the page touches one of these, it says so. Where two sources word the same step differently, the page reports both. The page has no questionnaire and gives no score, on purpose: a list is not an assessment. It names no asthma medicine and gives no dose of anything. It quotes no named person, and gives no figures for how common asthma is; the sources have them, with their context. Lines marked “Ours” are our own suggestions. English only for now. This page saves nothing: no account, no cookies, nothing you tick is stored or sent, and no analytics (privacy). Scarlet Beast is not a clinic or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].

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