Christina Applegate Says Living with MS Is 'The Worst Thing I've Ever Gone Through'
Christina Applegate said she rarely goes out amid her ongoing struggle with the progressive nerve disease multiple sclerosis
The actress appeared on telling the host people will often ask her what she did to deserve breast cancer and MS
Living with MS, she said, is 'really, really hard'
Christina Applegate gave an update in her ongoing struggle with multiple sclerosis, sharing that she rarely leaves home.
'If people saw what my life was like on the daily, they wouldn't they wouldn't be able to do it. Because I can sometimes not do it. It's really, really hard,' Applegate said during a May 5 appearance on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. The Married… with Children alum, 53, appeared with her MesSy podcast co-host, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.
Related: Christina Applegate Tears Up as She Announces the Death of Her Father: 'First Time I've Really Cried'
'I don't really leave the house anymore,' Applegate told O'Brien.
She shared she's often asked, ' 'How did you get it?' … Meaning, I must have done something wrong in my life to have this disease. I did it to myself.'
'It's, like, I had breast cancer as well, so, 'Oh, you must have done something,' " she said, referencing her 2008 diagnosis. "That stigma is — I'm used to it now, but it was for a while, like, was so hard to swallow because why the f would you think that I would do something to have this?'
Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. The progressive disease damages the protective cover around nerves called myelin in your central nervous system, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It can cause muscle weakness, vision changes, numbness and memory issues.
The initial symptoms, she explained to O'Brien, were painful: 'I was losing balance, but the pain was extraordinary. And when I say numb, it's numb, but it hurts.'
Related: Christina Applegate Reveals She's Working on a Memoir: 'I'm Writing It Right Now'
The Dead to Me alum has been candid in describing details of the brutal symptoms on her podcast and in interviews, sharing that she will 'lay in bed screaming' from the pain and that 'unimaginable' pain from vomiting and diarrhea has led to her being hospitalized 30 times.
'This is the worst thing I've ever had in my life,' she told O'Brien. "It's the worst thing I've ever gone through.'
When she said, 'I'm going to start crying,' O'Brien told her, 'Cry all you want, and then I'm gonna start crying.'
'I'm just having a pissy day today,' Applegate replied. 'I'm having a bad MS-y day.'
'I'm sorry. Cry, and then I'm gonna cry,' O'Brien said. He then quipped, 'I'm gonna make my assistant David cry … I make him cry all the time,' prompting Applegate to laugh and say, 'Okay.'
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