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Christina Applegate opens up on crippling depression amid MS battle

'This is being really honest, I don’t enjoy living,' the Emmy winner said.

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US actress Christina Applegate arrives for the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, California, on February 26, 2023. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
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By BRIAN NIEMIETZ | bniemietz@nydailynews.com | New York Daily News

“Trapped in this darkness,” former “Married… with Children” star Christina Applegate says multiple sclerosis (MS) has sent her into crippling depression and destroyed her joy for life.

“This is being really honest, I don’t enjoy living,” the 52-year-old Emmy winner, who was diagnosed with MS in June 2021, said on Tuesday’s episode of her “MeSsy” podcast.

She co-hosts the show with former “Sopranos” star Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.

“I’m still f–king pissed off,” Applegate said of her diagnosis. “I’m still mad about it.”

Throughout the podcast, Sigler told Applegate it’s important to stay active, even if exercise is harder now that her central nervous system has broken down.

Applegate said she enjoys when people come over and sit in bed with her, but even going out to grab coffee is too much of a hassle. A recent television appearance drained her energy for the next two days, she added.

“It’s so hard to live in a disabled body,” Sigler said. “But what makes it harder is when you compare it to how it used to be.”

Applegate confessed she’s in a deep depression unlike anything she’s felt in decades and worries she may never feel better.

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US actress Christina Applegate arrives onstage during the 75th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on January 15, 2024. (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images) 

“A real, f–k-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,’” Applegate said. “I’m trapped in this darkness right now that I haven’t felt in probably 20-something years.”

But she and Sigler soon after got a laugh when Applegate joked about being unable to pronounce “disability” correctly when recently discussing her struggles.