Christina Applegate has addressed concerns for her wellbeing after fans grew worried following her claims she no longer enjoys being alive.
The Dead to Me actor, 52, has struggled with depression since her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis – an immune disorder that disrupts the central nervous system and has left her with mobility issues and chronic eye pain.
Applegate clarified that although she has struggled with her mental health due to MS she is not “sitting here on suicide watch” as some of her supporters have assumed.
Speaking on her MeSsy podcast, which Applegate co-hosts with her friend and fellow MS survivor Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the actor said she was glad she had spoken about her depression.
“I was talking about some dark stuff that I was thinking and feeling,” she said. “There’s so much shame a lot of people feel when they’re going through mental health issues.”
The actor added not vocalising dark emotions gives those feelings “immense power”, whereas sharing them with others can be ‘incredibly healing” and are “important to express” regardless of whether it makes other people “uncomfortable”.
“By making such a big deal about it you’re making other people think, ‘Oh, s**t-, I can’t talk about this.’ And that is not OK with me,” Applegate continued.
“It’s important to be able to say these things. And, no, I’m not sitting here on suicide watch, OK? I am not. Nor have I ever been.”
Concern for Applegates wellbeing came after she said on a previous episode of the MeSsy podcast she felt “a real, f***-it-all depression, like a real depression, where it’s kind of scaring me too a little bit because it feels really fatalistic, it feels really end of.”
“I don’t mean that but I’m trapped in this darkness right now that I haven’t felt in probably 20-something years,” she said. “I don’t enjoy living. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.”
Applegate went on to say that she called her therapist to make an appointment for the following week “which was a big thing for me to do”.
The Dead to Me star said therapy was hard for her because she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop crying and that she continued to cope with her diagnosis through self-deprecation.
In August 2021, Applegate revealed she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few months earlier and production on Netflix’s Dead to Me had to be halted for five months when she began treatment.
However, during an appearance on Good Morning America in March Applegate said she believed that though she got her official diagnosis in 2021 she likely had it “six or seven years” before.
“I noticed, especially the first season, we’d be shooting and my leg would buckle,” she said, referring to Dead to Me.
“I really just put it off as being tired, or I’m dehydrated, or it’s the weather. Then nothing would happen for months, and I didn’t pay attention.”
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you.
