'You just have s***ty days': Christina Applegate says taking a shower is 'frightening' amid multiple sclerosis battle
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Christina Applegate, 51, who has been struggling with multiple sclerosis (MS) for two years, recently talked about her problems in an interview. "With the disease of MS, it's never a good day," says the ‘Dead to Me’ star, before noting that, she has an indomitable spirit for which she is always “up, never down.”
The ‘Bad Moms’ star talked at length about the difficulties she faced with taking showers, "You just have little s***ty days. People are like, 'Well, why don't you take more showers?' Well, because getting in the shower is frightening. You can fall, you can slip, your legs can buckle. Especially because I have a glass shower. It's frightening to me to get in there."
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'It f***ing sucks'
In the interview, Applegate further shared her views about how people take certain things for granted, "There are just certain things that people take for granted in their lives that I took for granted," before adding, "Going down the stairs, carrying things — you can't do that anymore. It f***ing sucks," as per Vanity Fair.
While the mother-of-one admitted to being able to drive short distances and bring food to her daughter, Sadie Grace, upstairs, she also feels the rampage that MS has on her body. She said further, "Gravity can just pull you down and take everything down with you," she explained. "So we have this little thing at the top of the stairs that we call 'purgatory.' So if anyone's done with anything upstairs, we put it in purgatory so one of my able friends can bring it downstairs."
While busting the myth that she has a large group of friends and support staff, the TV veteran said, "I actually don't want to be around a lot of people because I'm immunocompromised," before adding, "I have my friend who lives here during the week and she helps me take care of Sadie. And then on the weekend I have a caretaker. I also don't want a lot of stimulation of the nervous system because it can be a little bit too much for me. I like to keep it as quiet and as mellow as possible.”
Talking about her symptoms, Applegate said, "It's exhausting," and added, "Imagine just being in a crowd of people and how loud that is. It's like 5,000 times louder for anyone who has lesions on their brains."
According to Mayo Clinic, “Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a potentially disabling disease of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system).” In Multiple sclerosis, the immune system attacks cover of nerve fibers causing communication problems between the brain and the body.
'I don’t have that in me at this moment'
In February 2023, Applegate attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards with her daughter Sadie Grace and fashionably sporting a cane with the caption “FU MS” embossed on it. She told the Los Angeles Times in an interview during that time, “It’s my last awards show as an actor probably, so it’s kind of a big deal,” elaborating further, “Right now, I couldn’t imagine getting up at 5 a.m. and spending 12 to 14 hours on a set.” She said later, “I don’t have that in me at this moment.”
The ‘Friends’ alum also talked about her potential career change as she said, “Doing a s**t ton of voice-overs to make some cash to make sure that my daughter’s fed and we’re homed.”
'It was so hard'
The actress, who has been married to Martyn LeNoble since 2013, was diagnosed with MS in August 2021 while filming for the third season of her Netflix series ‘Dead to Me’. Talking about the difficulties she faced while filming, she said, it was "as hard as you would possibly think it would be," as per Variety.
About her acting possibility in the future, she said, "It's about finding what I'm capable of doing," before adding, "I'm so new in this right now. It takes time to kind of figure out this disease, and figure out what's bringing on symptoms. I'm just a newbie to all of this. So I'm trying to figure it out — and I'm also in mourning for the person who I was. I have to find a place that's as loving as my set was, where they won't think I'm a diva by saying, 'Hey, I can only work five hours.'" She also added, "There's no way I could do the work that I just came off again. I mean, it was so hard," she said.
‘The Sweetest Thing’ star then talked about her future dreams, "I'm pretty convinced that this was it, you know? But who knows — I'm probably gonna get really bored of being in my room. I'd like to develop stuff, I'd like to produce stuff," and added, "I've got a lot of ideas in my mind, and I just need to get them executed."