Selma Blair Posts Heartbreaking Photo, Reveals She ‘Wants to Cry’ and ‘Wants Her Mom’

Selma Blair is getting real about the emotional and physical ups and downs of chronic illness, sharing a photo that has hearts breaking amid her multiple sclerosis battle. The Cruel Intentions actress, 47, posted a photo on her Instagram Wednesday of her bare and bruised legs in the bathtub, opening up about her “insomnia” in the caption.

“Insomnia. I am like a waking baby,” she began. “Afraid and want to cry. I want my mom. I do. I will take a bath. And cry. The beginning is hard. I have to Remember.”

Blair’s admission elicited sympathy and votes of confidence from her followers.

“Sending you love… and gratitude for your bravery,” Dancing With the Stars‘ Carrie Ann Inaba wrote. “Even though I don’t know you personally, your sharing helps all of us who struggle with chronic illness.”

Comedian Celeste Barber added, “Cry my friend. You’re not alone in this.”

Blair has been open about her diagnosis since revealing she was living with MS last year.

“I had tears,” she said of her diagnosis on Good Morning America soon after. “They weren’t tears of panic, they were tears of knowing that I now had to give in to a body that had loss of control and there was some relief in that.”

“There were times when I couldn’t take it and I was really struggling with how I’m going to get by in life,” she confessed, adding that she initially felt she was “not being taken seriously by doctors.”

“I dropped my son off at school a mile away and before I got home I’d have to pull over and take a nap … it was killing me,” she recalled of life before learning what was going on. “And so when I got the diagnosis, I cried with relief.”

Just last week, Blair gave an update on her treatment on Instagram, revealing she had shaved her head.

“I am being discharged from the care of an incredible team of nurses and techs and a visionary Dr. who believes in my healing as much as I do. This has been a process. And will continue to be one,” she wrote. “I am immunocompromised for next three months at least. So no kisses please. I wanted to make sure any complications that might arise here were my private space. And we got through brilliantly. I thank you all for your love and support and that extra dose of great with a [PEOPLE Magazine] cover. I see things so much more clearly now. And I am excited to share this journey when I am ready.”

Photo credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images