Christina Applegate Shares How 'I Lay in Bed Screaming' from MS Pain

Christina Applegate shared a raw look at the physical side of multiple sclerosis, talking about how the disease can often leave her “screaming” in pain. 

“I lay in bed screaming — like, the sharp pains, the ache, that squeezing,” the Dead to Me actress said, revealing that her symptoms have progressed during the Nov. 5 episode of MeSsy, the podcast she cohosts with Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who also has MS.

On the episode, the twosome spoke with Rory Kandel, the owner of Rory’s Bakehouse, who shared that her MS is also "manifesting as pain.” 

“It feels like I have knives in my stomach,” Kandel said. “Like, I'll be laying in bed, and I wake up, and I physically can't turn from side to side.”

“It's the worst,” said Applegate, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021. The Cleveland Clinic explains that the progressive disease “damages the protective cover around nerves called myelin in your central nervous system. It can cause muscle weakness, vision changes, numbness and memory issues."

“Do you feel like that?” Kandel asked, prompting Applegate to reply, “Every single day of my life.”

“I can't even pick up my phone sometimes because now it's traveled into my hands, so I'll, like, try to go get my phone or get my remote to turn on the TV or sometimes, I can't even hold them. I can't open bottles now.” 

“But we look fine,” Kandel said.

“Because it's the beauty of the invisible disease,” Applegate said.

The Married...with Children alum shared that depending on her pain levels, “I just lay in bed all the time. I mean, I worked for almost 50 years, so I'm like, I'm kind of okay with it.” 

Getting out of bed in the morning can be so painful that Applegate compared it to the “floor is lava. The floor is lava.”

“It looks like somebody put a hot fire poker up my a—hole,” Sigler said about those first steps of the day.

“I put my feet on the ground and they're hurting, like, extraordinarily bad to the touch," said Applegate. "I was like, yep. Gonna get back in my bed and pee in my diaper because I don't feel like walking all the way to the damn bathroom,” she said, adding quickly, “I actually don't lay here and pee in my bed diaper. That's just a joke.”

“But it's like it's so freaking painful and so hard and so awkward.” 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.