Christina Applegate has kept her fans updated about her battle with multiple sclerosis since she was diagnosed three years ago.
Your latest update? “I don't enjoy living. I don't enjoy it. “I don't enjoy things anymore.”
The “Dead to Me” and “Married… With Children” TV star, 52, said her depression recently returned after more than 20 years when she became brutally honest about the mental toll of her battle with EM. “I give up so easily,” she told her “MeSsy” podcast co-host, “The Sopranos” actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler, in an episode released Tuesday.
Applegate announced in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with MS, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system and can cause progressive physical and cognitive decline. Since her diagnosis was revealed, the Emmy-winning actress has been open about her condition, from the 30 lesions on her brain to the difficulty and discomfort of attending all-day Hollywood events, such as the 2023 Emmy Awards, where her colleagues celebrated her with a large banner. ovation.
Applegate said on the podcast that she becomes discouraged and hopeless easily and that caring for her teenage daughter is one of the few things that motivates her amid her illness.
“I'm in a depression right now that I don't think I've felt in years, like a real fucking depression,” Applegate said. “It's like real depression, which also scares me a little bit because it feels really fatalistic, it really feels like the 'end of'.”
She added: “I'm trapped in this darkness right now that I haven't felt in… probably about 20 years.”
Applegate said she did “one great thing” to address her depression: She contacted a therapist. She said she initially didn't seek out a mental health expert because he was “afraid to start crying.” Instead, “her way of doing things is to make fun of myself.”
The “raw, honest and thought-provoking” conversation about depression was a way for Applegate and Sigler, who also lives with MS, to express their feelings, Applegate said in a Tuesday tweet.
“When we hold feelings of despair, we give those feelings incredible power,” he said.
He continued: “Just by sharing we free ourselves. Never feel alone. There is always an ear somewhere. I love you.”
MS is an incurable disease and Applegate revealed earlier this year that she could have had symptoms for up to seven years before her official diagnosis. “I didn't pay attention,” she told “Good Morning America” in April. Despite the support of his fans and colleagues, the actor told GMA host Robin Roberts that he is still fighting his illness.
“I wake up and remember it every day. …But it might get to a point where it works a little better,” she said in March. “Right now I'm isolated, and that's how I deal with it, not going anywhere because I don't want to. It's hard.”
