Selma Blair’s MS Revelation: Finding Joy in Diagnosis
Selma Blair has shared that understanding her multiple sclerosis has lifted a significant weight from her shoulders.
The *Cruel Intentions* star, 52, who was diagnosed with the chronic immune disease in August 2018 but kept it private until the following January, explained that knowing what you’re dealing with allows you to be “thrilled.”
“It’s so funny. I felt like people thought it had to be some tragic thing, but I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand,'” the actress shared. “I was feeling tragic inside before, and thinking this is just all psychosomatic and how can I change myself?”
Blair added that for “as long as I can remember,” she wondered how other people were able to cope.
“How do they do that? How do they feel that way? How does that mom carry her baby and stay awake?” she recalled. “I just did not understand how I was so different from people, but yet totally kind of fine-ish.”
Finally receiving the diagnosis from her doctor made her feel “so happy.”
“I finally just felt seen. I kind of joke like, wait, there’s receipts. This validates this vision here, this validates this or this or this, that people wouldn’t really see because with relapsing MS, it can go away. It can relapse.”
According to the MS Society, a MS relapse is defined by the appearance of new symptoms, or the return of old symptoms, for a period of 24 hours or more.
The relapses can also vary from mild to severe.
Blair explained, “It’s like relapse remitting, so it can relapse and it can remit, and so as a kid you’d get something checked and then you’d go back [and] it’s not quite there, but you’re left with the shadow of it.”
Growing up, the intermittent symptoms caused an internal struggle when it came to wondering if she was actually okay or not.
“So my whole life felt kind of like gaslighting, even though no one was doing it intentionally,” she said.
Blair confessed it “took so many years” for her to come to terms with her diagnosis.
“And that’s the part that I want to just tell people,” she shared. “Sometimes if we’re lucky enough, we’re still here at the end of these years to get better.”
The actress, who is “not scared necessarily of dying” since “we all die,” added, “I’m just so curious and I just wanted to hear everything about people’s experiences.”
“It was just kind of my light to just find stuff out and laugh with people that we both, we’re fine one minute and then we’re like, ‘Ugh, got to get to my bed.'”
Recently, the *Legally Blonde* actress shared that she is “truly relapse-free” and is “feeling really well.”
Blair partnered with Health Front to raise awareness for SurvivorNet as it expands its coverage beyond cancer and focusing on many other conditions.
Stay tuned for more updates from Eternal Pen! We hope you enjoyed this insightful piece.
