Selma Blair said she was “thrilled” to have received her Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis.
The “Cruel Intentions” actress, 52, was diagnosed with the debilitating disease — which affects the central nervous system by disrupting the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body — in August 2018.
“[I was] thrilled,” Blair told People of the autoimmune disease. “It’s so funny. I felt like people thought it had to be some tragic thing, but I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand.”
“I was feeling tragic inside before, and thinking this is just all psychosomatic and how can I change myself?” she added.
Blair, who shares 13-year-old son Arthur with her ex Jason Bleick, said she would often wonder what was “wrong” with her prior to the diagnosis.
The “Legally Blonde” alum said she would ask herself how people would go on with their daily routines with ease.
“I just did not understand how I was so different from people, but yet totally kind of fine-ish,” she told the outlet.
“I finally just felt seen. I kind of joke like, wait, there’s receipts. This validates this vision here, this validates this or this or this, that people wouldn’t really see because with relapsing MS, it can go away. It can relapse.”
“It’s like relapse remitting, so it can relapse and it can remit, and so as a kid you’d get something checked and then you’d go back [and] it’s not quite there, but you’re left with the shadow of it,” she added.
Blair admitted that she felt as though people had been “gaslighting” her, albeit unintentionally.
She acknowledges that it took her a long time to accept her reality, but eventually, she began speaking openly about her battle with the disease.
“And that’s the part that I want to just tell people,” she said. “Sometimes if we’re lucky enough, we’re still here at the end of these years to get better.”
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
“I’m just so curious and I just wanted to hear everything about people’s experiences,” Blair added.
The actress last week shared a welcome health update, revealing that she’s “truly in remission.”
Blair told People that she’s “finally well enough” to leave the house.
“I am doing amazingly well. I’ve been feeling great for about a year,” she told the outlet. “But I am finally well enough to really, genuinely — I always try and feel my best — but now that I actually have stamina and energy and getting out and going out isn’t so scary.”