In August 2021, Applegate announced she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Christina Applegate says she is currently experiencing a severe relapse of her MS symptoms, leaving her in excruciating pain and facing daunting challenges.
In a surprising revelation on her MeSsy podcast, the 52-year-old actress shared the harrowing details of her ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis. During Tuesday's episode of her podcast, co-hosted by Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate bravely disclosed the extent of her struggles. "I'm in relapse right now, pretty bad," she admitted.
In response to Sigler's inquiry about the nature of her relapse, Applegate described intense pain in her legs, making simple tasks like walking to the bathroom feel perilous. She also detailed bizarre sensations, including tingling sensations emanating from her buttocks downwards and unsettling eye movements preventing her from getting much-needed rest.
"I haven't slept for 24 hours because my eye is doing something weird, where every time I close my eye to go to sleep, my right eye starts to shift like this," Applegate said.
Applegate expressed the lack of response from her medical team, stating that she has yet to receive assistance despite reaching out to her doctors. Concerned about the severity of her symptoms, she plans to see her medical team promptly to find answers.
The actress disclosed the toll the relapse has taken on her mental health, revealing that she recently experienced a deep depression upon returning from what she described as a "win vacation." Applegate's emotional struggles were further compounded by her admission that she hadn't showered in three weeks due to her debilitating condition, relying instead on alternative hygiene methods such as using Cottonelle.
Describing her physical state as unprecedentedly dire, Applegate lamented the lack of energy and circulation in her legs, emphasizing the relentless pain she endures.
"My legs have never been this bad, so I don’t know what’s going on, like, no energy, legs are just done, like, can’t get circulation, I can’t get them to stop hurting," Applegate admitted.
In August 2021, Applegate announced she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis -- commonly referred to as MS -- a "potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system)," according to the Mayo Clinic.
"It’s been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition," she tweeted at the time. "It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a**hole blocks it."
It is with that signature blend of boldness, transparency and humor that Applegate, also a breast cancer survivor, has invited fans to understand more about what her life with MS has been like ever since.
"This is the first time anyone's going to see me the way I am," she said in a New York Times interview the following year ahead of the final season of Dead to Me's premiere. "I put on 40 pounds; I can’t walk without a cane. I want people to know that I am very aware of all of that."
While she was in production of that third season of the hit Netflix series, Applegate learned of her diagnosis, finally getting an explanation for the years of mysterious on-and-off symptoms she had suffered.
"My symptoms had started in the early part of 2021, and it was, like, literally just tingling on my toes," Applegate recalled in an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts. "And by the time we started shooting in the summer of that same year, I was being brought to set in a wheelchair. Like, I couldn't walk that far." The star credits fellow actress and Sweetest Thing co-star Selma Blair, who announced her own MS diagnosis in 2018, with ultimately getting tested.
"She goes, 'You need to be checked for MS,' and I said, 'No.' I said, 'Really? The odds? The two of us from the same movie? Come on, that's not gonna be -- that doesn't happen,'" Applegate told Roberts. "She knew. If not for her, it could have been way worse."
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