Jamie-Lynn Sigler has had Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) for over 20 years, and she has come to accept the illness as part of her life, but when she was first diagnosed, she struggled to come to terms with it.
“After a long process and getting the courage to come forward and tell people that I live with a disease, then I really began this journey of self-reflection and most importantly, acceptance,” Sigler, 42, tells The Messenger.
When she was diagnosed, “I felt like my power was being taken away,” Sigler says. “You have to allow yourself to feel those difficult feelings, the grief, the sadness, the fear.”
Sigler says she pushed away those emotions “for a really long time. And once I allowed myself and gave myself the permission to really feel those things and process them, came this moment of just accepting, okay, RRMS is going to be part of my life.”
RRMS is a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks the central nervous system, including inflammatory attacks on myelin — the fatty substance that insulates the nerve fibers — and on the nerve fibers themselves. Symptoms vary greatly, but can include vision and balance problems, fatigue, numbness and difficulty concentrating.
“Physically this disease affects us all very differently. It's very individual, but I think emotionally what we go through really unites us and where we have the commonality and real understanding and the community,” she says.
Sigler recently created a guide for others with RRMS in partnership with Novartis, which makes the MS drug she takes.
The actress says that finding a support system was crucial for her, especially finding an MS specialist who would listen.
“About six years ago when he and I started working together, he looked across the table at me and he said, ‘Jamie, I want you to understand that your voice needs to be the loudest in this room.’ And it was a moment of taking my power back and giving myself my voice again.”