Speaking Up to Help Others
- Christina Applegate, 52, was diagnosed with MS in August 2021 — but she admitted that her body image issues began way before that as she struggled with an eating disorder during the early years of her acting career and faced challenges going through breast cancer in 2008.
- The Emmy-winning actress has spoken about how she continues to cope with the “demon” of low self esteem, but is speaking up so future generations, including her daughter, don’t have to go through the same struggles.
- Whether you are living with cancer or some other type of illness, it’s important to know you’re not alone if you’re having a hard time with how you view your body after receiving a diagnosis or going through treatment. Sharing your feelings with someone you trust or a mental health professional can help you on your healing journey.
However, as the wife and mother becomes more comfortable voicing vulnerable feelings on her MeSsy podcast with pal Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS, the metamorphosis of a more empowered Christina Applegate seems to be taking shape.
Feeling ‘Shame’
The bigger name on a certain “famous” show had said, “‘Hey, we’re having trouble lighting under your eyes. Your bags under your eyes are so big,'” Applegate recalled, noting that it was a “hereditary thing.”“And he goes, ‘I suggest you get them removed.'”
So she did. The moment understandably caused her to feel “shame.”
“People just plant … seeds in your head.”
Applegate has also “never spoken” about her 10-year issue with anorexia for the entire duration of the show Married with Children as a teen. At 15, when she landed the gig, Applegate was put on Weight Watchers by her mom and she got down to 110 lbs.
“I had an eating disorder,” she said. I would eat five almonds in a day. And if I had six, I would cry and I wouldn’t want to leave the house. And that stuck with me for years and years and years.”
Airing Out Her Feelings
This newfound candidness on MeSsy is starkly different to how she approached public speaking in the past, specifically, a Good Morning America interview with fellow breast cancer survivor Robin Roberts 16 years ago. In March, Applegate confessed she was “lying my ass off about how I felt” about her breast cancer diagnosis and double mastectomy at 36.
“I went out and I was the good girl talking about, ‘Oh, I love my new boobs!’ … that are all scarred and fucked up,” she said.
Applegate recalled returning home after her GMA appearance — which was to promote “Stand Up to Cancer” — and said she “fell into the wall and sobbed, because it was a lie. Everything I was saying was a freaking lie. It was me trying to convince myself of something, and I think that did no service to anyone.”
Applegate also recounted taking her bra off and “crying every night,” noting “I wish that I had said that.”
“Some people go, ‘Oh my God, cancer’s the best thing that happened to me!’ And I’m like, ‘Uhh, then you had a pretty shitty life,’” she joked.
Added Applegate, “I make these jokes because if I don’t, I’ll suffocate, I’ll be done.”
In an effort to keep herself strong and confident amid MS after gaining 45 pounds since her diagnosis, Applegate explained to Sigler, “I don’t look in mirrors and this is obviously something that people don’t know. I have writing all over my mirrors in my bathroom so I don’t look at them, because I will fall on the ground and cry.”
Mirrors, she said, bring out her inner security “demon.”
Facing Yourself — Improving Body Image
Yet, Dr. Marianna Strongin, a New York-based licensed clinical psychologist, tells SurvivorNet that spending time in front of the mirror can actually improve body image.
Although research has found that when looking in the mirror we are “more likely to focus on the parts of our body we are dissatisfied with,” which can cause “a negative self-view and lower self-esteem,” it’s important to look at the parts of your body that you love and the parts of your body that you don’t.
Eventually, she says, this can help you create a more accepting relationship with yourself.
“Body image is both the mental picture that you have of your body and the way you feel about your body when you look in a mirror,” she said. “As you allow yourself to spend more time looking at all of you, you will begin having a new relationship with your body.”
Whether you are living with cancer or some other type of illness, it’s important to know you’re not alone if you’re having a hard time with how you view your body after receiving a diagnosis or going through treatment.
Facing Uncertainty
“Every day of our lives is really filled with uncertainty,” Dr. William Breitbart, the chair of the Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
Dr. Breitbart said that learning to embrace that uncertainty is a part of living, not just for those fighting cancer, but for everyone.
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“What the task becomes is having the courage to live in the face of uncertainty, realizing that you cannot necessarily control the uncertainty in life, like the suffering that occurs, challenges both good and bad,” Dr. Breitbart said.
Understanding Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis causes the immune system to attack cells that form the protective sheath that covers nerve fibers in the spinal cord. The disruption leads to communication problems between the brain and the rest of the body.
Once the protective barrier is damaged, the spinal cord struggles to communicate to the body’s arms, legs, and other parts to function normally.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society lays out the different types of multiple sclerosis:
- Clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) is when an individual experiences a single neurological episode lasting 24 hours or less. CIS is what MS is diagnosed as until there is a second episode.
- Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS): The most common MS among the million people battling the disease in the US, RRMS is marked by sudden flare-ups, new symptoms, or worsening of symptoms and cognitive function. The condition will then go into remission for some time before reemerging with no known warning signs.
- Primary progressive MS (PPMS): These individuals have no flare-ups or remission, just a steady decline with progressively worse symptoms and an increasing loss of cognitive and body functions.
- Secondary progressive MS (SPMS): This almost transitional form of MS progresses from RRMS to PPMS.
In addition to balance issues, numbness, and tingling in the limbs, as Applegate experienced, other common MS symptoms include vision and bladder control problems. Mood changes and mental and physical fatigue are other symptoms people living with MS may experience, according to the National Institute of Health.
SurvivorNetTV presents: ‘Defying All Odds’
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke explains this disease as: “An unpredictable disease of the central nervous system, [MS] can range from relatively benign to somewhat disabling to devastating, as communication between the brain and other parts of the body is disrupted.” Investigators of the disease believe it to be an autoimmune disease.
Many people fighting MS experience muscle weakness and difficulty with coordination and balance.
Currently, there is no cure for MS, although some people treat the disease using chemotherapy, medications, or steroid drugs.
Contributing: SurvivorNet Staff
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