I'm a 31 y.o. woman, and I was just diagnosed with asthma today during a major attack. Honestly, I'm not super worried about it. It was very very bad, and I still can't breathe right, but the albuterol helps. I think the reason that I'm not super worried about it is because my best friend has asthma. We've been best friends for like 5 years, and she is always using her inhaler. By being around her, I've seen that it is controllable (she does still end up at the ER occasionally, but rarely), and that it's something that I can live with. Without her, I really think I would be super panicky about it. There's something about having a person who you can physically see dealing with it, as opposed to just hearing stories on the internet (no offense to anyone, but I can't see what's happening over the 'net, and I can when I'm with her). You might want to see if you can find someone in your area who already has asthma, that you can talk to. Perhaps your doctor might know someone...they can't hand out the person's info, but maybe you could ask him to give your info to someone that he thinks might be interested in talking to you about it.

Good luck!

Melissa