People experience asthma differently because of the various levels of severity of asthma that persons suffer from. That is why some people with asthma rarely experience symptoms, usually in response to triggers; whereas other people may experience airflow obstruction most of the times, even with minimal stimulation of these allergens.

Asthma basically exists in two states: first one is the steady-state of chronic asthma, and second one is the acute state of an acute asthma exacerbation. The symptoms of asthma also differ depending on what state the patient is actually in.

Steady State Asthma

In a steady-state, there are some common symptoms such as: nighttime coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, etc. Severity of asthma can be often correlated to an increase in symptoms because symptoms can worsen gradually.

There is a common misconception among general people that all people with asthma wheeze. But this is not true. Some asthma patients wheeze while some do not. Also, wheezing is not an asthma specific sign because it may also be present in other respiratory system related diseases such as chronic bronchitis.

Acute Asthma Exacerbation

An acute asthma exacerbation is normally referred to as an asthma attack. There are some basic symptoms of an attack such as wheezing, shortness of breath, a tight feeling in the chest, etc. Some asthma patients are found primarily with coughing, and in the late stages of an attack, no wheezing may be heard from the patient as air motion may be very much impaired. Though symptoms may be very severe during an acute exacerbation, a patient may show few or even no signs of the disease between attacks.

The severity and duration of asthma symptoms greatly differs from time to time as well as from patient to patient. The symptoms may be irregular, and they can last only a few minutes or days. But symptoms of asthma can be found constant and persistent in severe cases of asthma.

During very severe attacks, an asthma patient can feel lack of oxygen and turn blue or cyanotic. Besides, he/she can have chest pain or even can suffer from loss of consciousness. Just before becoming unconscious, the patient may feel numbness in the limbs, his/her palms may start to sweat and his/her feet may become cold.

The severity of asthma symptoms can be classified into 4 categories which are as follows:

- Mild intermittent: Here severity of attacks varies, but there are no symptoms between attacks.

- Mild persistent: In this case, attacks are sometimes severe enough to interrupt regular activities.

- Moderate persistent: It includes more severe attacks that occur at least twice a week and may last for days.

- Severe persistent: This includes frequent severe attacks, continual daytime and frequent nighttime symptoms.

One thing we have to remember that a person with mild or moderate asthma does not mean that he/she cannot have a severe attack because the severity of asthma can change over time. In order to prevent the patients from advancing to a more severe stage, it is important that the patient must know how to manage his or her asthma well, even without the presence of his or her physician.