Asthma is actually a very common disease. About 1 in 13 people have it based on a few studies. At the same time, there are also multiple different kinds of asthma that all have different triggers. Even something as harmless as dust could be a trigger. And if you're really unlucky, you might be affected by multiple or all triggers.
Asthma is a really terrifying kind of disease.
How asthma works could even somewhat be compared to a monster straight out of a horror movie. The perfect personification of that would probably be Freddy Krueger. Freddy Krueger is a monster that can attack people within their own dreams. The more you fear him, the stronger he becomes. If he is able to kill you in your dreams, you'll die for real.
In a very similar manner, asthma is also powered and strengthened by fear. The fear of a asthma attack could cause an asthma attack. At the same time a panic attack could also easily be triggered by the fear of having an asthma attack. A panic attack would make you lose rationality and could definitely cause an asthma attack. A basically endless and perfect combo.
A common occurrence is having slight trouble breathing which could be due to a multitude of reasons. It could however also be interpreted symptoms of asthma.
If it just so happens, that your thought process is already somewhat muddled due to something like long time sleep deprivation, asthma could just give you that final push.
If you think you're having/ about to have an asthma attack, the natural reaction to be attempt to breathe more. Not just more but also faster. Almost like you're trying to trick yourself into believing that you are fine. Definitely fine. That heavy breathing could also just straight worsen your situation. You'll slowly be overcome by that feeling of fear crawling up your body. That fear will make you lose rationality. You're thought process might start speeding up. You'll be thinking at the speed of light, panicking all the while. Now you're also having a panic attack attack which will make it even harder to breathe.
So Freddy is basically a dream demon that becomes stronger the more you fear him. Up until now, I have only covered the fear aspect of asthma. In addition to that asthma is directly linked to nightmares.
During a bit of research, I found out that asthma medication can cause depression and nightmares. You are literally 22 times more likely to have a nightmare if you're on that medication. The three times I had a serious asthma attack that involved ambulances and multiple days in the hospital happened to be whilst I was sleeping. At least 2 of those occasions were accompanied by nightmares. Either the fear caused by nightmares can directly trigger an asthma attack, or maybe the feeling of impending death by suffocation could trigger negative dreams. Either way, asthma is linked both fear and dreams just like Freddy Krueger
Once you start fearing asthma, the only way to get over that fear is by accepting the fact that you could die at any moment. By accepting death and thereby overcoming the fear of death, you'd lose any reason to fear asthma. That by itself could massively reduce the chance of having an asthma attack.
[disclaimer: There is a huge difference between accepting death and wanting to die]
Once you accept death, you lose a bit of your humanity. It is not only hard to do, but it is something that should never be done. Accepting the fact that you could die at any moment will ruin any self motivation you might have had. This isn't an instantaneous process, but a kind of mentality could develop over many years. Something you'll only notice when it's already become a big problem.
This was all based my personal experiences. Feel free to ask any questions. My asthma was/is directly related to allergies and exercise, both of which I have basically ignored. Don't ignore your triggers, powering through just isn't the smartest option. In the past, I had to take multiple doses of asthma spray for multiple years because of doctors orders. At some point I stopped taking it because I was worried my body would develop resistances and grow immune to it. In the end it worked for me and I was able to "beat" asthma. I will however admit, that it could have just as easily killed me.
(Ps: I have already corrected my mentality)