5 Mental Challenges of Living With MS (And How to Manage Them) — From a Neuropsychologist

March 15, 2024

by Megan E. Davis

Actress Christina Applegate — best known for Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Married ...With Children, and Dead to Me — has been open about the mental challenges of multiple sclerosis since her 2021 diagnosis.

Christina Applegate doesn’t sugarcoat it. Living with MS is “hell,” she's said.

Known for her roles on "Married ...With Children" and "Dead to Me," Applegate was diagnosed with MS in 2021. She often speaks candidly and publicly about her battle with multiple sclerosis, including the mental toll it takes.

Her feelings are understandable. And relatable to others with multiple sclerosis or another chronic illness. MS can be painful and disabling. There’s no cure and it gets progressively worse over time.

The many challenges people with MS face are familiar to Kathleen Fuchs, PhD. A UVA Health neuropsychologist, she helps patients with MS cope with their illness. I asked Fuchs about the difficulties of living with MS and what advice she gives her patients.

Here are 5 common challenges people with MS face and her strategies for managing each.

MS Challenge #1: Dealing With a Difficult, Delayed Diagnosis

Applegate is frank about the anger and grief she feels. These feelings are both common and valid among people with MS, Fuchs explains.

“Sometimes people feel they didn’t get their diagnosis in a timely manner,” she shares. “Diagnosis can take quite a while because we don’t have a precise test, like a blood test for MS, that definitively says yes/no.”

Instead, an MS diagnosis comes from looking at symptoms over time. “You have to have symptoms that come on at different points in time and involve different parts of the central nervous system,” Fuchs explains.

Bad News in Primetime

Adding to the frustration, the average age of MS diagnosis is 20-40 years old. “MS strikes people in the prime of their lives when they’re not expecting health issues,” Fuchs said. “It really wallops people.”

Applegate learned she had MS while shooting Netflix comedy hit Dead to Me, which she describes as the kind of role she’d always wanted and finally achieved. Now the future of her 4-decade acting career is uncertain.