Christina Applegate is getting candid about her mental health.
On the Tuesday, June 18, episode of her “MeSsy” podcast with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate addressed public concern over recent comments she made that she doesn’t “enjoy living” amid her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
“I don’t enjoy living,” Applegate, 52, said on the June 4 episode of the podcast, which was recorded in early 2024. “I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore,” she continued, adding that due to her chronic illness, “if someone’s like, ‘Let’s get up and go for a walk.’ Or, ‘Let’s go get a coffee,’ I’m like, ‘I don’t enjoy that process.’”
On Tuesday’s podcast, the Dead to Me star said she received text messages from people expressing concern for her well-being after the comments began circulating online.
“Ask me how I am, Jamie,” Applegate told Sigler at the start of the episode. “Oh my god, you guys, I’m so good. Isn’t that what everyone wants to hear? I’m good. Does that take a little bit of the pressure off of all of you? I’m good.”
“I was talking about some dark stuff I was thinking and feeling… this is our safe place to get those things out because when we hold things in, we give them power,” she explained. “I also think there’s so much shame that people feel when they’re going through mental health issues. It’s a moment. It’s a thought. It’s a feeling.”
She added, “I think that it’s incredibly healing and important to be able to express the thoughts, whether that makes someone uncomfortable or not.”
Applegate clarified that she’s “not sitting here on suicide watch,” but admitted to sometimes experiencing “dark thoughts” because of her chronic illness.
“I dare anyone to be diagnosed with MS or any chronic illness that has taken who you were prior to that moment and go, ‘This is great,’” she said. “You have moments of feeling like, ‘This is tiring and I don’t want to do this,’ but you do it. By saying this s–t out loud it releases the pressure in the balloon, man.”
Applegate’s cohost, Sigler, who is also diagnosed with MS, agreed with her and said that the podcast contains “conversations between friends, and this is how you talk to friends.”
“I can promise you, Christina, I have had moments where I have prayed that I didn’t wake up. Where the days just felt so hard. It just felt so daunting. It felt so scary. It felt so overwhelming,” the Sopranos actress revealed. “And like you said, it was a moment. You have to express them and get them out.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
