Selma Blair Re-Posts Photo of Coping Mechanism She Was Originally 'Ridiculed' For
On Tuesday, actress Selma Blair posted a throwback selfie on Instagram, showing a coping mechanism that helped her chronic illness symptoms but earned her ridicule from critics.
Blair’s latest post shows a striking photo of her lying face-up in a bathtub covered by a striped towel. In the caption, Blair revealed the warm bath, minerals and heavy towel were recommended by a therapist to soothe her muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis (MS). Blair publicly revealed her MS diagnosis in October 2018.
“I spin the wheel again. the Rolodex of selfies. I stop on a pic a friend took of me trying to stop spasms by lying in warm water with a heavy towel with minerals in bath,” she wrote in the post, adding:
My body would go into a kind of palsy. I was embarrassed and tried to turn them into mouth clicks instead. But the energy had to go somewhere. The therapist recommended towels over me. It helped. She said it really helps her autistic patients. So I wanted to share. A warm bath with towels and a space heater in bathroom so water doesn’t have to be so hot.
Muscle spasms are one of many potential symptoms of (MS). According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, spasticity can be mild and cause tightness around your joints or be severe and cause painful, involuntary spasms, especially in your legs. One way to manage muscle spasms is to relax your muscles, which Blair did with warm water and a heavy towel. Like a weighted blanket, which calms your nervous system, the heavy towel likely had a similar effect on Blair’s muscles.
Recently, Blair has been outspoken about living with chronic illness, including stepping out at an Oscar’s party with her cane and doing an interview with Robin Roberts during an MS flare that impacted her ability to speak. In her latest Instagram post, however, Blair said she wasn’t always comfortable speaking openly about her health online.
“I recall posting this at the time and kind of being made fun of by some news outlets,” Blair wrote on Instagram. “My skin wasn’t as tough yet. And I took the picture down. The thing is, the heavy towel helped.”
Now, Blair said she can take the criticism from people who don’t understand what it’s like to manage MS, and she’s happy to share what works for her to support other chronic illness warriors.
“We are in this together,” she said. “I don’t mind being ridiculed a bit anymore. We do what we need to do.”
For other ‘habits’ that help those in The Mighty community live with chronic illness, check out these stories:
Header image via Selma Blair’s Instagram
Renée Fabian was the features editor at The Mighty. She has also written for The Washington Post, VICE, Healthline, Talkspace, The Fix, The Establishment, The Culture Trip, and GRAMMY.com, among others. Renée was named a 2019 AHCJ Comparative Effectiveness Research fellow, a 2020 USC Center for Health Journalism California fellow, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @ryfabian.
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