Selma Blair reveals overlooked MS symptoms which left her unable to walk or talk
Topics: Celebrity, Health, ITV, This Morning, Film and TV
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/ This Morning
Topics: Celebrity, Health, ITV, This Morning, Film and TV
Selma Blair has revealed a little-known symptom of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that doctors overlooked despite suffering with it for as long as she could ‘remember’.
Blair, 53, opened up about her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in October 2018 - two months after receiving the news from doctors.
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, almost 1 million people in the United States are living with the chronic autoimmune condition.
For some, their pain subtly manifests, but for others like Blair, the prevalent condition can cause them to stop being able to walk and even talk.
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During a recent episode of the UK daytime variety show, This Morning, the Legally Blonde star explained how she’d been suffering with a certain symptom since childhood.
“I’ve had symptoms for as young as I can remember with my eyesight,” she told hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shepherd.
“I had optical neuritis and we never really diagnosed it. [They] just said ‘Oh, it’s turned into a lazy eye.”
The Mayo Clinic defines optical neuritis as swelling that damages the optic nerve, with common symptoms including pain upon eye movement and temporary vision loss in one eye.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society goes on to say that it is often associated with MS; however, it could be a result of something else.
“It can be painful in the eye, pressure, and the eye nerve gets quite inflamed, so you can accrue damage the longer that stays,” Blair explained, before claiming that with relapsing, it can also remit. “It can go away, so it can be tricky, I think with doctors, especially when you’re young and quite capable.”
The Cruel Intentions star went on to say that even though she did neurological tests with medical practitioners, she understood why something like optical neuritis can go under the radar.
She told the ITV presenters that she also suffered from chronic headaches and fever, as well as a drop leg and ticks in her youth.
“But I did spend my entire life with doctors really trying to find out why I was so tired, but it was really misdiagnosed as depression,” Blair revealed. “I guess extreme fatigue can also seem like depression, so I just went that way and figured ‘Oh god, I guess it’s all in my head’.”
In August 2021, Blair announced her MS was in remission and that no new lesions were forming; however, in a recent TODAY interview, she revealed that her remission has not been relapse-free.
The former Dancing with the Stars contestant said that she’d been offered a new drug by a doctor who had become available and improved her symptoms.
"I really wanted to do as much as I can in my life while I have this great time being relapse-free," Blair added. "I want to try as much as I can, and I want to show people too, that just because you get a hard diagnosis, it doesn’t always... mean a death sentence, that there are ways to lighten the load.
"And if I can help lighten the load for other people or for their parents or anyone, then I’m so happy to be able to do that in any way.”
Support for anyone affected by the contents of this article can contact the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America fr support. MSAA's Helpline may be reached several ways: Call (800) 532-7667, extension 154 or email [email protected].