46-year-old actress Selma Blair, best known for her roles in Legally Blonde, Hellboy, The Sweetest Thing, and Cruel Intentions, was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, after experiencing symptoms for years.
46-year-old actress Selma Blair, best known for her roles in Legally Blonde, Hellboy, The Sweetest Thing, and Cruel Intentions, was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, after experiencing symptoms for years.
Opening up to the public about such an emotional, and physical struggle can be a difficult thing, but Selma is on a mission to share what she's going through in the hopes of helping others who are going through something similar.
Normally, people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50.
Common symptoms include poor coordination, impaired vision, memory loss, fatigue, and more.
The trigger of this illness has yet to be discovered.
But the doctor dismissed her, and credited her exhaustion to the fact that she is a single mother to a seven-year-old boy.
But when that stopped working, she dedicated herself to sobriety.
She celebrated two years of being sober in June of 2018.
"I was ashamed, and I was doing the best I could," she said. "I was really struggling with, how am I going to get by in life?"
"I cried. I had tears. They weren't tears of panic — they were tears of knowing I now had to give in to a body that had loss of control," she said.
"There was some relief in that, 'cause ever since my son was born, I was in an MS flare-up and didn't know. I was giving it everything to seem normal."
"I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken GPS. But we are doing it. And I laugh and I don't know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best." she captioned an Instagram post.
"I always want him to feel safe, never responsible for me," she said.
"No, we never know what kills us, Arthur, but this is not the doctor telling me I'm dying," she told him.
Michael has been an advocate for finding a cure for Parkinson's disease since he was diagnosed in 1991.
"He really helped me. Plus, I was like, I have Michael J. Fox's email now. I'm pretty cool," she said playfully.
In the meantime, she is continuing to raise awareness by sharing her story.
"I was a little scared of talking."
She said, "Even my neurologist said this will bring a lot of awareness because no one has the energy to talk when they're in a flare-up, but I do, because I love a camera!"
"I want my life to be full somehow. I want to play with my son again. I want to walk down the street and ride my horse. I have MS and I am OK."
Being a single mom, and battling everyday against MS would be a very difficult thing for someone to do on their own.
She seems to be very dedicated to her work, and is trying not to let her illness get in the way of things she loves to do.
“By the grace of the lord, and will power and the understanding producers at Netflix, I have a job." she wrote.
The 10 episode series is about astronaut, Niko Breckinridge, leading a crew on a mission to search for alien life.
“[Noreen Halpern] who assured me that everyone has something” as well as #chrisregina [and creator/showrunner/executive producer] #aaronmartin and every crew member… thank you.”
Sadly, the disease can target just about anyone, and unfortunately a few other celebs have shared the same struggle as Selma.
Jamie-Lynn is best known for playing Tony Soprano's daughter in the HBO drama, The Sopranos.
But she revealed to People that she has been struggling with MS for the last 15 years, after being diagnosed when she was just 20 years old.
Jack gained his fame for being Ozzy Osbourne's son, and for starring in their family's hit TV reality show.
Shortly after becoming a father in 2012, he was diagnosed with MS.
"I'd just had a baby, work was going great ... I kept thinking, 'Why now?'" he said.
Because she is a celebrity, and has the platform to reach more people — she is making the most of it, and showing the world that no one is invincible.
It can happen to anybody.
We're all hopeful for her that within a year she begins to feel a lot better!
Which is hardly a consolation. But it's definitely great to see that she's trying not to let her illness bring her down.
Here's the whole interview with Good Morning America: