Selma Blair describes the moment she received her multiple sclerosis diagnosis

selma Blair the interview here's Robin Roberts how are you doing I am do very well very happy to see you being able to you know just put out what being in the middle of an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis is like selma blair has a message for the world multiple sclerosis may have affected her voice but not the power of her words when I first got MS I had no idea what it was affect me and so my speeches you'll notice is I have spent spasmodic dysphonia right now it is interesting to put it out there to be here to say this is what my particular case looks like right now and it could be very different in a year before the better the actress speaking for the first time about the disease she's been battling for years that's called a snowflake disease cuz it's different like a fingerprint for everyone not one-size-fits-all on sunday Selma made an emotional return to the red carpet for the first time since going public with her diagnosis four months ago attending the Vanity Fair Oscar party with the support of her customized cane a moment of triumph for tears of happiness earning cheers from the press line the actress became a household name in movies like Legally Blonde the sweetest thing and of course are you fool intentions wanna learn or not sarah michelle gellar one of my dearest called this morning and said i'm really helping to change people's lives I can't bend my left leg well for years her illness was a mystery the 46 year old suffering troubling symptoms she says doctors didn't take her seriously so she developed her own coping mechanisms I was drinking I was in pain I wasn't always drinking but there were times when I couldn't take it and I was really struggling with how am I gonna get by in life and not taken seriously by doctors single mother you're exhausting the financial burden but the black hormonal premenopausal post menopause I mean I don't mean no one said she could get memory maybe we should just check it out you would ask for that and then they just would say no no we should probably and I even got to the point where I said I need to go to work and I have to stay awake I dropped my son off at school a mile away and before I got home I'd have to pull over and take a nap and I was ashamed and I was doing the best I couldn't have a great mother but it was killing me ms is a chronic often unpredictable disease of the central nervous system which is made up of the brain spinal cord and optic nerves it can cause problems with vision balance and muscle control before she was diagnosed Selma sought out the help a fellow actor Michael J Fox who has lived with Parkinson's disease for nearly 30 years I've reached out to him before I was diagnosed and I deemed him and I said I don't know who to tell but I'm dropping things I'm doing strange things I have a tremor my pinkie won't stop moving my leg I can't feel it's bouncing and I said I'm sorry this is inappropriate I didn't know who to turn to and I don't know him it was cause he was a celebrity that was an actor that came out that's still working that talks about it he got in touch with me and we began conversation and my MS hits in spots that make it very parkinsonian plus I was like after years of suffering it was a fall in front of a doctor that eventually led to her diagnosis last August when you were first diagnosed what went through your mind I cried I had tears I wasn't they weren't tears of panic they were tears of nothing I now had to give in to a body that had lots of control and there was some relief in that because ever since my son was born I was in an EMS player up and didn't know and I was giving it everything just seemed normal I wasn't totally worried but I did have about ten minutes of crying and then immediately got on the phone with my manager cuz I had to be in Atlanta the next day after finish a movie the basic cause of MS is still unknown but experts say it's at least two to three times more common in women than men how difficult was it to share it with your son not at all but he had already seen that I was falling and doing things and I was always laughing and he'd imitate me and I'd be like that's fine but don't do that out of the house people think you're a jerk and so I did have to tell him after the MRI said I have something called multiple sclerosis and he almost cried and said will it kill you and I said no I mean we never know what kills us Arthur but this is not the doctor telling me I'm dying and he was like okay and that was it for Selma her diagnosis has also given her a new mission if I help you want or help anyone be more empathetic to someone that that might seem like me or a lot worse God for a bit then you know that's the least I can do right now she's hoping to create a line of adaptive clothing for people with disabilities well I think people need the confidence to not feel invisible once you have an illness that is kind of where my mindset is you know and she's still doctors people I'm still home the bacon I'm a single mom and Selma is still working part of an upcoming sci-fi drama series on Netflix called another life what propelled me to really come forward was authentic gratitude for all the people that were holding my secret at Netflix and on the movie after when it's a he thank for people with disabilities minor or major that you can still find a way hopefully if you believe and persist to still get to work her message of perseverance coming through at that emotional Vanity Fair red carpet on Sunday moving even the press Getti photographer Mike Coppola quickly snapped this powerful image sharing his story on Instagram saying quote she turned around put her left hand in the air and pause for a second as she was determined to take control of her body I took my favorite shot of the night right then and captured one of the most vulnerable human moments I have been a part of what are doctors telling you what's what's your prognosis the doctor I saw he said with any year I could have at the time he said 90% of my abilities back so this is this is just say let's meet again next year and see if I'm better if I'm not and I can still have a conversation that's good enough I was a little scared of talking and even my neurologist said no this will bring a lot of awareness because no one has the energy to talk when they're in a flare-up but I do cuz I love a camera [Laughter] and Vanity Fair's feature on selma Blair is live on their website Vanity Fair dot-com and the March issue of the magazine is on newsstands right now hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 3,030,239

Keywords: Selma, Blair, Beitner, Multiple, Sclerosis, Diagnosis, MS, Cruel, Intentions, nerve, damage, disabling, disease, of, the, central, nervous, system, actress, celebrity, health, abc, abcnews

Id: 8aHkihCdQGk

Length: 8min 37sec (517 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019