Trigger Warning: this article contains mentions of alcohol misuse.
Selma Blair is opening up about her decision to get sober. In a new interview with Us Weekly, the actor discussed living with multiple sclerosis (MS), a diagnosis she said would’ve never happened if she hadn’t given up alcohol in 2016.
“I wouldn’t have been able to be diagnosed with MS unless I was sober,” Blair told the outlet. “I wouldn’t be a good mom unless I was sober. I self-medicated.”
The actor also explained that her undiagnosed symptoms of MS, including “jerks and spasms,” contributed to her drinking. “I’d try to suppress them or keep moving or drink excessive amounts of alcohol to stop big things that I thought were mental,” she added.
When asked about her lowest point with drinking, the Legally Blonde star recalled a “plane incident” in 2016, when she was removed from an aircraft for being too intoxicated.
“I was so messed up and dehydrated and hungover and didn’t know I had neurological issues,” she explained, referring to her MS that was undiagnosed at the time. “I didn’t understand anything. It was horrifying and humiliating. I had to grow up.”
Blair talked openly about her sobriety in her debut memoir, Mean Baby. Speaking to People about her experiences with alcoholism, which she candidly writes about in her 2022 book, the actor shared that she began drinking at a young age and used alcohol as a “coping mechanism.”
She’s In A “Much Happier” Place
In her recent Us Weekly interview, Blair also recalled being officially diagnosed with MS in 2018, two years after she decided to get sober.
“Once I knew I had MS — which I’d had for a while — [things] made so much more sense,” she said, revealing that, before her diagnosis, she thought she might’ve been “making it up.”
Adding that she’s now in a “much happier” place, Blair also said that being open about her diagnosis and sobriety “has been a real enrichment in my life.”
“I could be sitting crying at a table and someone leaves me a note that says, ‘You changed my daughter’s life,’” she said. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It makes me so emotional.”
The post Selma Blair Got Candid About Her Sobriety Journey & MS Diagnosis appeared first on Bustle.
