Christina Applegate Isn’t Alone In Her Misdiagnosis. Mine Was Missed For 20 Years – And I Paid A Steep Price

“I spent my entire adult life in near-constant pain, working full time and pretending my condition was no big deal. Maybe it didn’t have to be that way.”

When Christina Applegate shared on an episode of her podcast last week that she’d been misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis, her words were measured, chosen carefully.

She explained that her doctors thought she would be happy upon hearing the news, but she says the experience has actually been “very unnerving and really confusing”.

Finding out she doesn’t have MS doesn’t mean she isn’t sick, only that she no longer knows the reason why. In her own words, she’s now “back at square one” when it comes to her health.

I’ve been there, too.

I’m 47 now, but my illness started at age 21. Back then, I was broke, with terrible health insurance, and just starting a nonprofit career with big dreams of making a difference in the world. Like Christina, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness with no cure, one with mysterious and evolving neurological symptoms that constrained my life choices.

I was several years into my illness before I could scrape together the money to see a specialist and afford a brain MRI. When I did, the diagnosis was easy and clear: chronic migraine.

MS sounds terrifying to a lot of us. Chronic migraine, not so much.

In TV shows and novels, “having a migraine” is used as an excuse to avoid sex with your spouse or workplace shorthand for “I went out partying and have a hangover”.

But the “chronic” part of my diagnosis meant living with often-debilitating symptoms 15 or more days per month, a reality that shaped my every choice.

On the outside, I appeared to be thriving. I was a young and wide-eyed transplant living in New York City. I was physically active, though intense workouts and certain yoga and Pilates poses triggered attacks, so I had to switch to walking. I always had a job, though this was partly a desperate bid to keep my health insurance so I could afford the expensive doctors and medications that enabled me to function.

I told myself I was lucky: I had an obvious and well-matched diagnosis. It wasn’t terminal or life-threatening. There were treatment options. There were even doctors who specialised........

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