Christina Applegate says she’s ‘so mad’ about her MS diagnosis but uses humor to cope
By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN
(CNN) — Christina Applegate is detailing the day-to-day adversities she faces living with multiple sclerosis, and how laughter and friendship are often the best medicine.
“This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life,” Applegate said on this week’s episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I hate it so much and I’m so mad about it. You can’t overcome it.”
Applegate first shared she was diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, in August of 2021. She has been outspoken about her experience coping with it ever since.
“I have 30 lesions on my brain,” the “Dead to Me” actress revealed on the podcast. “My biggest one is behind my right eye so my right eye hurts a lot.” At times, she said, she feels a “weird” sensation in her hand “and then I’ll get a seizure-y feeling sometimes in my brain, but not all the time.”
Adding a little bit of levity into her life is something that has helped her get through it all, Applegate said, as well as connecting with “Sopranos” actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who has lived with MS for over 20 years.
“I make jokes… I make these jokes because if I don’t, I’ll suffocate. I’ll be done. I’m not ready for the healing yet and I’m being very honest,” she said. “I will get there. But when someone says, ‘Have you accepted this as your new normal?’ No… absolutely not.”
In an effort to help others who may also be living with MS, Sigler and Applegate teamed up for their new podcast “MeSsy,” which launched in March, after having hours-long phone conversations about their shared experience.
“It was healing,” Applegate said. “We always talk about if she and I could go together as one person, we would be the most perfect disabled person because she’s like, ‘We’ve got to find light and we’ve got to move forward.’ And I’m like, ‘F— this.’”
“MS brought us together,” Sigler previously told People magazine of their partnership.
“We have each other and that’s helped us so much,” Applegate said of the podcast.
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