Selma Blair describes the moment she received her multiple sclerosis diagnosis

selma

blair

the interview here is robin roberts how are you? I'm very good, very happy to see you being able to, you know, just post what it's like to be in the middle of an aggressive form of

multiple

sclerosis

.

selma

blair

has a message for him Multiple

sclerosis

in the world may have affected her voice, but not the power of her words. When I first got MS, I had no idea what it was affecting me, so you'll notice my speeches: I've had spasmodic dysphonia at the

moment

. It's interesting to put it. It's there to be here to say this is what my particular case looks like right now and it could be very different a year from now, the better the actress speaking for the first time about the illness she's been battling for years and which is called snowflake disease. because it's different like a fingerprint for everyone, it's not the same for everyone on Sunday Selma made an emotional return to the red carpet for the first time since she went public with her

diagnosis

four months ago by attending the Vanity Fair Oscar party with the support of her personalized cane a

moment

of triumph for tears of happiness earning applause from the press line the actress became a household name in films like Legally Blonde the sweetest thing and of course you're dumb intentions do you want to 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 properly for years. Her illness was a mystery. The 46-year-old woman was suffering from worrying symptoms. She says doctors didn't take her seriously, so she developed her own. Coping mechanisms I was drinking I was in pain I didn't always drink but there were times when I couldn't stand it and I was really struggling with how I was going to cope in life and the doctors weren't taking me seriously. Single mother, you. you're draining the financial burden but premenopausal black hormonal postmenopause I mean I don't mean no one said I could get my memory back maybe we should just check it out you'd ask for that and then they'd just say no no we probably should and I even got there to the point where I said I had to go to work and I had to stay awake.

I dropped my son off at school a mile away and before I got home he had to stop and take a nap and there he was. I was embarrassed and I was doing the best I could. I couldn't have had a great mother, but he 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 help from fellow actor Michael J. Fox who has lived with Parkinson's disease for nearly 30 years.

I contacted him before I was diagnosed, considered it, and said no. I don't know who to tell, but things are falling out. I'm doing strange things. I have a tremor. My little finger doesn't stop moving my leg. I can't feel it bouncing and I said, "I'm sorry, this is inappropriate." I don't know who to turn to and I don't know him because he was a celebrity, he was an actor who came out, who is still working, who talks about it, he contacted me and we started talking and my MS shows up at some points. that makes him very parkinsonian, plus I thought that after years of suffering, it was a fall in front of a doctor that finally led to his

diagnosis

last August when you were first diagnosed what went through your mind I cried, I had tears, No?

They weren't tears of panic, they were tears of nothing. Now I had to give in to a body that had a lot of control and I felt some relief in that because since my son was born I was in an EMS player and I didn't know and I was giving everything seemed normal. I wasn't totally worried, but I cried for about ten minutes and immediately got on the phone with my manager because I had to be in Atlanta the next day after finishing a movie. The basic cause of MS is still unknown, but experts say it is at least two to three times more common in women than in men.

How difficult was it to share it with your son? Not at all, but he had already seen that he fell on me and did things and he always laughed and he imitated me and I said it's okay, but don't do that outside the house. People think you're an idiot, so I had to tell them 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 isn't the doctor telling me I'm dying and he said, "Okay, and that was it for Selma to diagnose her." It's also given you a new mission, if I help you love or help someone be more empathetic to someone who might look like me or much worse God for a while, then you know that's the least I can do right now, she hopes to create an adaptive clothing line for people with disabilities, well I think people need the confidence to not feel invisible once you have an illness, that's where my thinking is, you know, and she's still a doctor , I'm Still Home, Bacon, I'm a Single Mom, and Selma are still working on an upcoming sci-fi drama series on Netflix called Another Life.

What really prompted me to come forward was genuine gratitude for all the people who kept my secret on Netflix and in the movie after When It's a He thanks people with minor or major disabilities who can still find a way, hopefully, if they believe and persist to continue working. His message of perseverance reached that emotional Vanity Fair red carpet on Sunday, moving even the press. Getti photographer Mike Coppola. He quickly took this powerful image sharing her story on Instagram of her saying quote she turned around she put her left hand in the air and paused for a second as she was determined to take control of her body.

I took my favorite photo of the night at that moment and captured one of the most vulnerable human moments I have been part of what doctors tell you what your prognosis is the doctor I saw said with any year I could have at that time he said that the 90% of my abilities had returned so this is just let's say let's meet again next year and see if I'm better off if I'm not and I can still have a conversation that's good enough. I was a little afraid to speak out and even my neurologist said no, this will raise a lot of awareness because no.

You have the energy to talk when you're in a rage, but I do because I love a camera and the Vanity Fair article on Selma Blair is available on their website Vanity Fair dotcom and the March issue of the magazine is in the kiosks. Right now, hello everyone, George Stephanopoulos, thank you for visiting the ABC News YouTube channel. For more videos, highlights and live event coverage, click right here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download. the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching