Christina Applegate Laments Over Her Struggles With 'Invisible Disease' Multiple Sclerosis: 'It's the Worst'
Christina Applegate has opened up about her struggles now that her multiple sclerosis (MS) has progressed into her hands.
In a new interview, the actress gave a raw description of how life has been for her ever since the symptoms of her disease got worse.
"I lay in bed screaming — like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing," Applegate shared in the latest episode of her "MeSsy" podcast, which she co-hosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also suffers the same condition.
According to the "Dead to Me" actress, who was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease in 2021, she struggles with the symptoms "every single day of [her] life."
"It's the worst," she added. "I can't even pick up my phone sometimes because now it's traveled into my hands, so I'll, like, try to go get my phone or get my remote to turn on the TV or sometimes, I can't even hold them. I can't open bottles now."
Applegate pointed out, however, that even though she could feel all of this pain and experience the symptoms of MS, other people might not be able to tell that she's suffering "because it's the beauty of the invisible disease."
She went on to share that she would rather stay in bed most of the time when she starts feeling pain, adding that the mornings are also a different kind of struggle because getting out of bed would make her feel like the "floor is lava."
"I put my feet on the ground and they're hurting, like, extraordinarily bad to the touch. I was like, yep. Gonna get back in my bed and pee in my diaper because I don't feel like walking all the way to the damn bathroom," she said before quickly clarifying, "I actually don't lay here and pee in my bed diaper. That's just a joke."
The 52-year-old Hollywood star is just one of the approximately 400,000 people in the U.S. and over 2.1 million people worldwide struggling with the chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The exact cause of the condition is unknown, but it is known to affect people with a family history of MS and those with low Vitamin D levels. Obesity during childhood, smoking, viral infections, and exposure to toxins are also risk factors.
