In the three years since Christina Applegate was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the actress’ medical condition has steadily improved. During a recent episode of her podcast Messy – alongside Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also received an MS diagnosis – she described the chronic pain she faces and how it affects her daily life.

“I was in bed screaming – like the sharp pain, the pain, the squeezing,” she explained. “Sometimes I can’t even answer my phone because it’s in my hands now, so I’ll try to grab my phone or grab my remote to turn on the TV, or sometimes I can’t even hold them. open more bottles.”

Applegate called multiple sclerosis an “invisible disease,” prompting agreement from their podcast guest Rory Kandel. Kandel is the founder of Rory’s Bakehouse and was diagnosed with MS in 2023. The owner described her pain as follows: “It feels like I have knives in my stomach. I’m lying in bed and I wake up, and I physically can’t turn back and forth.

The pain is particularly intense in the morning, the hosts and guests shared. “I put my feet on the ground and they hurt extremely painfully to the touch,” Applegate said. She turned the unfortunate truth into a comedic moment, joking, “I was like, yeah. I’m going to lie back in bed and wet my diaper because I don’t feel like walking all the way to that damn bathroom… That’s just a joke. But it’s like it’s so terribly painful, so difficult and so uncomfortable.”

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease that affects the nervous system. “It is thought to be an autoimmune disease, a condition in which the body accidentally attacks itself,” reads a description of the condition. “MS is an unpredictable disease that affects people in different ways. Some people with MS may have only mild symptoms. Others may lose their ability to see clearly, write, speak or walk when communication between the brain and other parts of the body becomes disrupted.”

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that nearly a million people in the U.S. live with MS, according to a 2019 study by the organization.