Christina Applegate Opens Up About MS Struggles: I’m Trapped in This Darkness

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Christina Applegate has admitted to struggling with depression as she continues to battle multiple sclerosis.

Commenting on her mental health in Tuesday’s episode of her and Jamie-Lynn Sigler’s “MeSsy” podcast, Applegate shared she had been experiencing a depression she has not felt “for years,” according to Page Six.

“Like a real, [expletive]-it-all depression where it’s kind of scaring me, too, a little bit because it feels really fatalistic. I’m trapped in, like, this darkness right now that I haven’t felt [in], like, I don’t even know how long, probably 20-something years.”

Although the episode was released this week, it was recorded after Applegate made a surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards back in January. And while she received a standing ovation as she walked on stage with a cane to present an award, and even cracked a joke to two, Applegate said it was still “the hardest day” of her life.

“This is being really honest … I don’t enjoy living,” she candidly shared on the podcast. “I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.”

Sigler, who has been battling MS for more than 20 years, refused to let the actor give up.

“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,” she said.

Responding, Applegate expressed her fears of returning to therapy to cope with depression, saying she did not want to let her emotions out.

“I’m so afraid for those floodgates to open and that I won’t be able to stop,” she said.

Concluding the podcast however, Applegate said she would get back in touch with her therapist.

Earlier this year, Applegate, who revealed her MS diagnosis in August 2021, admitted she was living “kind of in hell.”

“I’m not out a lot, so this is a little difficult, just for my system. But of course, the support is wonderful, and I’m really grateful,” she told “Good Morning America.”