Most people know very little about asthma except that it once caused an ambulance to come to their elementary school, so explaining how it works on a day-to-day basis is sometimes complicated.

And my case is almost entirely triggered by exercise, which has its own challenges. Here are 5 things you know to be true if you suffer from exercise-induced asthma.

1. You wonder what exercise feels like for everybody else.

As a lifelong opponent of exercise—even before I knew why playing tag was harder for me than all the other kids—I’ve heard a lot of pitches about why exercise is secretly the most fun I’ll ever have.

I’m a pretty unathletic person in general, so if asthma ceased to exist tomorrow, it probably wouldn’t alter my routine much. Still, I can’t help but figure that if I could get a sufficient amount of oxygen while exercising, exercising would, in fact, be much more bearable.

I know exercise isn’t necessarily easy for the average person, but it does look a lot easier for everyone else.

2. You sometimes have to explain that it’s a real thing.

Most people have heard of asthma and realize it’s a fairly serious condition. But maybe exercise-induced asthma sounds more like a fake excuse to get out of gym class and less like a chronic health struggle because I’ve actually had someone laugh about it to my face.

And, look, it is a little ridiculous. I can only imagine what I sound like, huffing and puffing as I attempt any remotely strenuous activity.

Still, I spent a lot of time trying to avoid being the last person running laps in P.E., and, when that failed, stressing about what the other kids thought of me as I stumbled off the track, gasping for air.

It hurts to know that some of them probably misdiagnosed my struggle to keep up with them as laziness or lack of effort instead of misbehaving lungs.

3. It’s not always triggered by exercise.

Maybe the name is misleading. The majority of the time, my windpipe is kind enough to constrict only when I’m attempting physical activity, but sometimes it spontaneously constricts when I’ve been sitting still for hours.

The fact is, asthma is caused by a wide variety of factors, including environmental allergens like pollen and dust. Exercise may be my primary trigger, but it isn’t my only one.

4. You’re way more nonchalant about an “attack” than people without asthma assume you should be.

Typically, when I feel a random asthma attack coming on, I lie on the couch for a good hour or so trying to decide whether I want to bother digging out my inhaler.

People without asthma have been horrified when I describe this internal debate. But while some asthma sufferers do have to fear for their lives every time an attack comes on, I think for the majority of us, “episode” is probably a more helpful classification than the rather alarming term “attack.”

When I start having an episode, it’s not that I cannot breathe; it’s that I have more difficulty breathing. I have to take deeper breaths to feel like I’m getting a satisfying amount of air. It is uncomfortable, but it’s also sustainable for an indefinite period of time. It causes me far more irritation than panic—hence my habit of lying on the couch, more invested in my Instagram feed than my wayward lungs.

5. You’ve never had a life-threatening attack, but every time you feel an attack coming on, you worry there’s a first time for everything.

I may be fairly cavalier about my asthma issues, but I’m also a little paranoid. Maybe some of my hesitance to use an inhaler immediately is rooted in the knowledge that if it doesn’t work, I’ll have a much trickier situation on my hands, and it might just be easier to ignore that possibility than face it. Which is entirely unproductive.

It’s also an unfounded fear. With very few exceptions, my inhaler has always neutralized the problem on the first try. I’ve never been hospitalized with asthma. I’ve only considered going to the hospital with it once, and that was because a mild episode was unusually persistent—lasting through the day, despite repeated inhaler use—not because it posed an imminent threat.

Still, I hear the horror stories too, and during weeks when I’ve had to use my inhaler more than its average rate of “once in a blue moon,” I do start to feel uneasy.

But overall, asthma isn’t quite as dire as those unfamiliar with it may think. Even if I do complain about my impending death every time I have to exercise.