This is Jack O’Brien with an MMNM Fast Break. This is a conversation with actress and MS patient advocate Selma Blair following her keynote discussion at the PHM Health Front Conference in New York City. I appreciate you talking with me. Just for those in our audience who maybe weren’t able to make it out to Health Front, you had a great discussion with Andrew. Can you just kind of give him a little bit of the high-level takeaways what you guys talked about? You covered a lot of ground. Yeah, we covered a lot of ground.

You know, I think what we What I What I took away from my speaking up there to from the conversation was one how much how much I always like to stress that um and that that um Excuse me while I can’t even think of the word. But validation. How important to diagnosis, to treatment, to just being human validation is.

Um, we know it outside in our lives, but I think it is really I think it’s really hard for doctors, like, to really look at each patient as a human in that time allotment. I mean, it’s like it just seems impossible. I get it. But um to have validation what we’re going through, is hard, challenging, unknown, um and to really like pay attention to the person in front of you, like really look at them.

You know, because there are things like really my whole life I was saying, you know, it really dawned on me today like I think most of my doctor’s appointments They were spent like looking at my file and not me. Great doctors. Like nothing bad to say except I really did realize that today.

Like I don’t know if any doctors until my recent one actually like looked me in the eye and just had a conversation with me instead of like okay last time you were here that you’re you know and never really looked at me till the end you know and um it makes a big difference for the spirit. You know the spirit um having hope and having a path and feeling like like they have a sport system even if they don’t have their own at home is invaluable.

It’s so true on that front and one of the things that you said to the audience too in terms of like giving advice to a lot of the marketers and that’s primarily what our audience is is like being able to prioritize the patient. I think it kind of goes in line with what you were talking about there. Is there any other sort of advice? I mean you’ve you’ve been a part of different marketing campaigns, some of them with pharmaceutical companies, again kind of where our focus is. And I imagine there’s something that you’ve been able to take away from that saying like hey like if you’re going to to engage with a public figure Right. or celebrity How you know what else should they be keeping in mind on that front?

Gosh, you know it was there was just no I didn’t even know where to start when I was diagnosed. I was thrilled to be diagnosed. Thought it would be you know a little more linear a little quicker. Um Healthcare never is. Healthcare never is even though you’re like that there’s so many advances you know I remember when I told my mom and I asked so that’s no big deal now you know that’s great they have so many advances you know oh How great you weren’t diagnosed when you were young.

You’d probably They’d tell you to stay at home and, you know, just prepare to lose your abilities. So, maybe it is a blessing in disguise that it’s now when I could handle it and um more things are on the market. But yeah, the the the need for hope and the need for people to unburden themselves is is pretty intense and real.

Um and the human aspect, I mean, even uh I mean that’s when it’s always done the most for me is when someone really just acknowledges like this this can be hard. This might be hard. And then you feel like a superhero if you do okay, you know. Um I can’t even remember the exact thing of your question. I’m sorry Jack. It’s all right.

It kind of feeds into another question I had which is you know I we have covered a number of different MS awareness campaigns or for different products and stuff and your name obviously comes up quite a bit. It’s it’s really you, Ann Romney, Christine Applegate being we’ll talk about the disease and really meaningful public way. What has been your perception in terms of maybe where MS is in terms of like the public’s perception? Like you said Right your mom obviously had a different reaction when Right you got diagnosed. Like where is it stand now in 2025?

God, um I still feel like such a beginner even though I’m such an advocate and I’ve had a whole lifetime of these symptoms unlike some of the other, you know, everyone’s story is different of course. Um but I really had had someone that had juvenile MS and never knew. So I went through a whole lifetime of missing the diagnosis and um feeling really lost and not knowing myself.

So, for me the part that really sticks with me that’s the most valuable for me is again um like the validation and hope still no matter where I am. Like no matter where I am in my disease journey, health journey um because I wasn’t validated for so long that unlike most people my diagnosis was like amazing.

I was so thrilled that there was a part of me that it opened up a whole life to me to trust myself. And so I I have a different um relationship then they might because I’ve been searching for so long and even after I did, you know, I had a really aggressive case um that did not remit for many many years. There was an active flare.

So I feel like I kind of have like the patient advocacy like, you know, curiosity of how we improve this and how for women and my main thing always though, no matter what with all this is like I wish I could tell doctors. Um and I got like three four three to six women that I know diagnosed with MS just by saying, “You need to ask for an MRI.” Um, my whole life I was never given an MRI.

Yeah, you And gave that example And there and that was And very And it good was told wild and there was a boy in my class that like had a stomach ache and he gets an MRI. And I am like 10 years like saying, you know, with a fever and having trouble like walking or seeing and weakness and I was never given an MRI. They’re like, “You had a cat scan, you’re fine.” Um Um, and so it would have been detected. And so when my friends I’m seeing symptoms in them, I was like, you need to get an MRI. That’s all I knew.

You know, I know it’s all different and I can’t give any advice, but that’s a tool that really worked for me and that showed the receipts and that showed the progression. Um, and so that has been that like in my own experience like a a handful of women went to get MRIs and found out they too.

realizing they had MS. Yeah. I’m curious what you’ve learned about yourself in becoming a patient advocate because you can train to become an actor, you can train to be all these different things. You don’t train to become a patient advocate. What has that been on what has that been like for you? It’s been amazing for me. It’s taught me so much patience um for myself. You know, I’m a real squeaky wheel when I get on something I want to talk, but then listening to people, it’s a whole different thing.

Like I get what doctors are going through in some small way cuz I can’t tell you how many people come up to me all the time with their symptoms and what they should do and and they realize I’m not a doctor, but they also realize I’ve just been dealing with it for so many years. Maybe I’ve some insight. Um and I do on some things, but usually it’s go to your go to a doctor if you can’t talk well with this doctor, like by all means keep going, keep trying. Cuz it took me a a bunch of doctors to find the right fit for me. I love being an advocate. I’m total beginner. I learn more all the time.

But um it just to for someone to for people to realize like yeah, it this hard. It might be the first really hard thing you do in your life. Um, I wish it were the last, but life is full of all of these and there are always opportunities to find out what we’re made of and to assemble the best teams. I’m curious from your perspective too, what advice you may give to other celebrities or public figures that have are living with diseases or medical conditions because you talked about that on the stage.

Like there is a stigma in this idea of I’m going to be othered, I’m going to be put as the poster child for that. And I I can imagine they look at you and they’re like, well, Selma’s willing to go out there and and Right. be open about that I really did find that um just by being one example. I did find as soon as I walked out, you know, with the cane, I’m seeing like I’m getting so much gratitude from young girls that that use a cane for whatever reason or other walking um assists.

But um I, you know, people have their right to privacy and to not share anything, but there is a good chance that you’ll learn more talking to people and they’ll learn more and then you can just be armed with more information to take to your doctor. I didn’t even know the vocabulary, you know, for so many things. It took me years to even get the diagnosis of dystonia, which was a byproduct of my RMS, but it’s not common, you know, so it just took forever.

They go, “I don’t know, it’s MS. You have a little bit of brain damage.” You know, and it’s like, “But what is it? What’s the name? What What do I tell people?” You know, I just I was always curious. Um and I I found it really rewarding, you know, um the human side of me cuz I didn’t really acknowledge that not trusting myself. So for me, it was it was very, very empowering and um and some of the closest friend Look, the friends I have now are ones I’ve met through the chronic illness community. Oh, it’s very it’s very profound.

I appreciate you being Yeah that that can with us. I have two more questions. One kind of serious and one a little more light-hearted. Um you’ve talked on the stage too about having the documentary, putting out your story on social media interviews, being in events like this. Like clearly media has a role in terms of being able to dispense that sort of health information. What does that been like for you in terms of being able to pull all those different levers and get your story out there?

Uh, I love now that there’s so many avenues, avenues for people to find resources or to find, you know, some type of advocacy um out there and, you know, to have people, you know, bounce ideas off of. But like any doctor says, “Careful. What you find online, careful you Google, you know, there’s there’s the good and the bad, but for me yeah, I’ve had horrible experiences online too, not with chronic illness, but horrible, staggering.

But the better the better moments that again I always reference because it did change me the kindness of strangers that pulled me through without judgment that were from the chronic illness community and even a few doctors who had reached out for me you know out to me and recommending other doctors that I now use and you know it’s been a wealth. It’s been my only information.

So I thank so much you know like Survivor net and all these other places that um you know are platforms for people to learn and take advocacy into their own hands and help with their doctor. It just means everything. I didn’t have anything, you know, you know, they’re just a couple of celebrities, but they weren’t like talking about it so much. And when you’re diagnosed, usually you’re in your worst and some of those celebrities might have made it a little past or didn’t have the same thing.

So, you know, I I love um the resource of, you know, the internet and all these things to find to find out your village. And you’re in your story would have been maybe completely different if this had happened 10, 20, like you said, if that happened earlier in your life, who knows? how would it turned out. Right, exactly. I really appreciate you making the time to talk. Like I Thank said you want to kind of end on a lighter note. Your dog has been by your side Oh through a lot of this journey.

I want I want to ask for the dog lovers in our audience Yeah for my own sake, how the dog is doing and and all that stuff. Um, my dog is doing incredibly well. Um, Scout does assist me um with a few things and also especially um as I was kind of you know, when I go into different rooms and things even though I am doing great um there’s different things that trigger um some different movement disorders or things that you know will glitch and I am by myself a lot. So even the things someone couldn’t see just having that support system.

Like I’ve said I don’t have the most family around. I don’t have any of that. So for me um to keep going I made the choice with my neurologist to have a service dog, a trained guide and service dog um for different things. But really the companionship like you know he’s He’s my He’s my guy and that does a lot. You know he’s my dog guy, but that Oh, he’s that’s very cute. But he’s very cute. I feel like I’m dating the captain of the football team when I hang around him.

Like everyone thinks he’s so hunky. Um, but he is. He looks after me, but also when I’m going through things in public and I’m alone, it’s just nice to have a companion that I can kind of kneel down with and regroup and get my bearings. Whereas before the dog, I might have had to just know, “Okay, I’m just going to have to stay in bed today. It’s a hard day. I don’t want to deal with this.” But with the dog, it helps. you know, he really helped me improve.

And also the things like even though he’s a train service dog, he still would pull occasionally or this or that and it taught me, you know, balance better and you know, resilience physically um to recover because that is something with MS too. We kind of can lose our ability to recover balance if we’re knocked off or things like that. So, um and I love dogs. Like, what a perk. Exactly. What a perk. I got a service dog. Come on. And how old is he too? Is that the He’s going to be 5, May 15th.

So, it’s like the perfect age too. Like not not dealing with the puppy stuff, but Well, he was in a facility the first year and a half, so that’s that’s a nice thing about an expensive service dog. You can have someone else train them cuz left to my devices, it wouldn’t be a service dog. It would just be a dog. Well, again, I really appreciate you being able to share these insights with our audience. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much.