Selma Blair Is 'In Remission' from Her Multiple Sclerosis: 'My Prognosis Is Great'

Selma Blair is sharing happy news — after years in a painful multiple sclerosis flare, she's now in remission.

The actress, 49, was diagnosed with the chronic immune disease in Aug. 2018. After a year of dealing with intense pain and physical struggles from MS, including having difficulty speaking and losing the ability to fully use her left leg, Blair opted for a stem cell transplant and an "aggressive" course of chemotherapy to restart her immune system.

It took time, she explained Monday while appearing virtually at the discovery+ TCA panel Monday in support of her upcoming documentary Introducing Selma Blair, but it finally worked.

"My prognosis is great. I'm in remission. Stem cell put me in remission," Blair said. "It took about a year after stem cell for the inflammation and lesions to really go down."

The Cruel Intentions star said that she's been doing well for the last few months but waited to share the news publicly.

"I was reluctant to talk about it because I felt this need to be more healed and more fixed," she said. "I've accrued a lifetime of some baggage in the brain that still needs a little sorting out or accepting. That took me a minute to get to that acceptance. It doesn't look like this for everyone."

"I have really felt unwell and misunderstood for so long that it's just, me," she added.

Blair said that her MS flare was extremely tough, both physically and mentally, and that she focused on her 10-year-old son Arthur to find the strength to get through each day.

"It's not that MS was on a path killing me. I mean it was killing me with this flare lasting so long," she said. "I was so burnt out. If there was an option to halt me, to rebalance after being hit so hard with that last flare, it's absolutely for my son. I have no desire to leave him alone right now."

Blair said that while getting an MS diagnosis "can be very isolating" for some people, she was lucky to have a ton of support from her family and friends, and that changed how she approaches life.

"People took great care of me. I never really like life. I do now — strange, huh?" she said. "Just because life's so weird. I was so scared in life. To suddenly start to find an identity and a safety in me, to figure out boundaries, time management and energy. I'm having the time of my life."

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And as she prepares for the premiere of Introducing Selma Blair, which hits theaters on Oct. 15 and streams on discovery+ starting Oct. 21, the Legally Blonde actress said that she appreciates that her stardom has helped her reach others who are struggling with any kind of illness.

"To hear even just me showing up with a cane or sharing something that might be embarrassing, it was a key for a lot of people in finding comfort in themselves and that means everything to me," she said. "I'm thrilled that I have some platform. In no means am I saying that I'm speaking for all people in this condition or any condition of chronic illness, I'm speaking my story and I that helps normalize one thing to open the door for other people to be comfortable in telling their stories. I'm thrilled to have this here."