Chatting to her co-host Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate confessed: “I’m in a depression right now, which I don’t think I’ve felt for years.”
Christina Applegate attended the 75th Emmy Awards in January this year. Photo / AP
Admitting it is something that is “scaring” her a little bit, she continued to say in the episode which was recorded shortly after her appearance at January’s Emmy Awards: “I’m trapped in like this darkness right now that I haven’t felt like ... I don’t even know how long, probably 20 something years.”
Applegate added: “This is being really honest ...I don’t enjoy living. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.”
The star then touched on her surprise appearance at the award show, telling listeners that she slept for “two days” after and felt as though it was “the hardest day of my life”.
Supported by her co-host - who was diagnosed with the disease in 2002 when she was only 20 years old - Sigler said: “It’s so hard to live in a disabled body. It is so hard. I will not take that away from you and I am right there with you,”
Christina Applegate with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in November 2022. Photo / Getty Images
Sigler - who only revealed her diagnosis to the public in 2016, continued to say for her, she finds it “harder” when comparing her life before her diagnosis and after the diagnosis, adding that reaching a place of “acceptance” is when it changes.
“Once we get you to this place where we’re accepting that this is how it’s going to be, maybe forever ...[coping with MS] is not a reason enough for you to stop living because I sit here across from you and you still make me laugh like nobody else can. You still make me smile. You make me feel loved.”
It comes after the star said she relies on a “sick sense of humour” to help her cope with her condition.
Christina Applegate and her daughter Sadie Grace LeNoble attend the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Photo / Getty Images
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live in March, she quipped: “I was thinking, wouldn’t it be funny if I came out and I did a somersault like Willy Wonka?
“And then I was like ta-da, you’d be ... ‘She is such a liar.’ I’m not. I literally am disabled.”
Kimmel replied: “I learned from our text exchanges you have a very sick sense of humour.”
The actress admitted: “It’s how I live. It’s how I keep myself okay.”
Applegate pointed out that if she weren’t laughing, she’d be crying all the time, and the late-night host added: “You probably do a little bit of that, I’m sure.”
Christina Applegate appeared on Jimmy Kimmel in March. Photo / Disney via Getty Images
Multiple sclerosis is “a condition of the central nervous system, interfering with nerve impulses within the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. It is characterised by sclerosis, a Greek word meaning scars”, according to MS Australia.
“These scars occur within the central nervous system and, depending on where they develop, manifest into various symptoms.”
Applegate has also battled breast cancer in 2008. She underwent a double mastectomy the same year.
Safe to talk (sexual harm): Call 0800 044 334 or text 4334
All services are free and available 24/7 unless otherwise specified.
For more information and support, talk to your local doctor, hauora, community mental health team or counselling service. The Mental Health Foundation has more helplines and service contacts on its website.
