Featured Image Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images/Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Women's Health, Celebrity
Mia Williams
Topics: Christina Applegate, Health, Women's Health, Celebrity
Christina Applegate has made an emotional admission about living with multiple sclerosis (MS).
The star was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2021 though believes she suffered with symptoms for 'six or seven' years prior.
Now an advocate for MS, Christina has shared what day-to-day life is really like with the chronic condition.
After revealing that Dead to Me would likely be her final acting role, she now hosts a podcast called MeSsy with her co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler.
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In a recent episode, Christina - who previously revealed she had 30 lesions on her brain - made a heart-wrenching admission about the pain she experiences every day as a result of suffering with the condition.
She said: "I lie in bed screaming.
"The ache, the squeezing - it’s like a vice grip that just won’t let go."
Finding day-to-day life very difficult, she added: "I put my feet on the ground, and it’s like they’re on fire. They hurt so much just to touch.
"I’ll wake up, and I physically can’t turn from side to side.
"I can’t even pick up my phone sometimes.
"The MS has traveled into my hands, and now I’ll go to grab my phone or the remote and sometimes I can’t even hold them."
Half-jokingly, she added: "I can’t open bottles anymore, so goodbye to pickle jars! It’s just so incredibly painful, awkward, and isolating."
Co-host Jamie-Lynn praised her honesty, saying: "You’re inspiring so many people."
Reflecting on her diagnosis, Christina told Variety in 2022: "I found that I had MS while we were shooting on a Monday.
"I went home, and the doctor said, ‘I need to do this meeting with you’.
"I could feel that this Zoom was not going to be good news. It sucked, I’m not going to lie."
The reason she decided to make the first appointment was due to advice from fellow actor Selma Blair, who she confided in about strange symptoms she was experiencing.
Christina told the British Vogue: “I was sitting in Selma’s living room, our children playing, and I told Selma I’d been having this weird tingling in my feet.
"She said, ‘You must get tested for MS.’ [Even my doctor doubted it] but there it was.
"In essence, because of her, I’m going to have a better quality of life."