Bristol Palin says her facial paralysis struck ‘completely out of the blue' with no warning signs
During an Instagram Q&A, Palin was asked specific questions about how she is dealing with her battle with facial paralysis and what specific symptoms she felt prior to experiencing the weakness in her facial muscles.
'I woke up and it was paralyzed completely out of the blue – no warning, wasn't sick didn't get the v@x, no recent Botox … just paralyzed,' she said in response to one question asking about what symptoms she felt.
The answer was posted over a video of herself showing the difference between the left and right sides of her face, adding a timestamp of January 20, 2025.
The former reality TV star was later asked how she is handling the diagnosis emotionally, to which she replied she thinks she is 'handling it well,' but admitted 'I can't look at pictures of myself rn.' Palin also shared her paralysis is 'probably 70% back to normal.'
Other fans shared concern that the paralysis could be permanent, to which Palin replied there is a possibility, 'but I don't think it will be.'
'It is slowly improving,' she wrote in her response. 'My doctor thinks it will be another 3 months before I'm *hopefully* back to normal.'
Palin first announced she was experiencing sudden facial paralysis on her Instagram stories in January.
3 Bristol Palin told fans she woke up with part of her face 'paralyzed completely' in January 2025.
bsmp2/Instagram
3 Palin doesn't think the facial paralysis will be permanent.
bsmp2/Instagram
In the story, she recalled waking up one morning 'with a little weird sensation in my face,' and after only a few hours, 'the entire left side of my face was numb and just paralyzed.'
After seeing a doctor and undergoing multiple tests, 'nothing came back in all the results' and she was prescribed 'steroids' and 'other medications' at the time.
One of the possible causes could be 'a case of Bell's palsy,' which doctors noted could have been brought on by stress or lack of sleep.
3 Palin's doctors do not know what caused her facial paralysis.
Getty Images
Bell's palsy is a condition that causes 'sudden weakness in the muscles on one side of the face,' according to the Mayo Clinic.
The weakness is typically short-term, and the exact cause is unknown.
A few months after sharing her struggles with facial paralysis, Palin took to social media in April 2025 to share that she was one year sober.
'365 days without alcohol.. *which sounds dramatic because I've never been a big 'drinker,'' she wrote on her Instagram story, per the Daily Mail. 'But this year of having a completely sober mind has allowed me to reevaluate a lot,' she continued. 'I don't want to alter the state of my mind, and don't want to 'take the edge off' of anything. 10/10 would recommend.'
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