Christina Applegate Says She's 'Back At Square One' After Doctor Revealed She Was Misdiagnosed With MS

Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) back in 2021 and has become a leading advocate for the autoimmune disease, raising awareness and encouraging further research.

Now she feels like a fraud who's let people down after discovering that she didn't have MS after all.

On her MeSsy podcast, which she co-hosts with Jamie Lynn Sigler, where they talk about womanhood and living life with MS, Applegate just returned to the podcast after spending a month in the hospital.

During that hospital stay, struggling with symptoms of what they thought was MS at the time, Applegate's doctors discovered symptoms that could not be attributed to multiple sclerosis, confirming that she didn't have it after all.

Multiple sclerosis is among the autoimmune diseases that still need much more research to be done to get real answers, and patients typically receive a diagnosis through a process of elimination instead of a test that confirms it.

However, because the disorder is confirmed through a process of elimination, sometimes people are wrongfully diagnosed with MS and treated for something they don't have, even if their symptoms seem to match up.

During her return podcast episode, Applegate confided:

"She came into my room and said, ‘Congratulations, you don’t have MS.'"

"You don’t get misdiagnosed and then all of a sudden, I’m better."

"I haven’t gotten better, Jamie. If anything, I’ve gotten worse in some ways."

"So I’m back at square one, that I don’t know what’s wrong with me. And that’s going to be an online investigation that my doctors are going to get into, and just to find out what has been happening since 2021."

"Why did this happen? I have every symptom of someone who has MS. Every single one.”

Instead of feeling hopeful, Applegate felt like she was back at square one, trying to find answers.

"It’s clear now that they’re finding something different. Something else is going on..."

"It’s this weird feeling because I became this poster child for MS."

"Everything I was doing, I had a reason. I had a f**king reason why my days sucked every day, and now I don’t have a reason, and it’s very unnerving, and it’s really confusing for me."

You can watch the podcast episode here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

On the second episode of MeSsy that appeared after Applegate returned, a neurology professor joined them to discuss Applegate's misdiagnosis, and they explained that upwards of 20% of people diagnosed with it and treated for it don't actually have MS, but something that looks and behaves like it.

The professor confirmed:

"Almost 1 in 5 of these people who’d been told they had MS, some for decades, didn’t actually have it. And a majority of them were on medication to treat their MS."

Applegate's news was shared on X, where X users sympathized with her, many having been misdiagnosed themselves.

While Christina Applegate might feel like she's back at square one, she has information now that she didn't have in the very beginning.