Michael J. Fox Shares His Struggles With Remaining Optimistic During Parkinson's Battle

Aug 13, 2019 by apost team

Actor Michael J. Fox has been coping with Parkinson’s Disease ever since his diagnosis in 1991. The public knows him as a joyful persona but when faced with health obstacles, it’s not easy to keep up the optimism at all times. Fox recently sat down with his old friend Dennis Leary at the Tribeca Film Festival and shared the struggles he faces every day.

In the interview, Fox was candid about his experiences, while still being sympathetic to the plights of others.

"I feel sometimes I don't want to be selling people the optimism thing because people have tough lives. Depression is real, and things happen to them that I can't even comprehend. They make my stuff seem like Band-Aids and skinned knees," Fox said during the panel reported Fox News. "So I don't want to be saying, 'Cheer up!' Some stuff sucks.

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On top of his ongoing Parkinson’s disease, of which he was diagnosed at the very young age of 29, he had to cope with spinal surgery this year. That would be enough to break somebody’s spirit.

But that wasn’t all, he also had to have surgery on his arm after he fell and shattered his humerus. Despite these setbacks, he still manages to maintain his optimism.

“I’m known as a guy who makes lemonade out of lemons, but I was out of the lemonade business: ‘I can’t do this anymore, I can’t’. But then I realized that I have to take every step one at a time now, and that slows life down,” Fox told his friend Dennis in comments reported by Fox News. “You have more time that way. Every step is a new adventure. I could fall down, not fall down, I could go off this way, go backward — who knows?”

Fox even named his first memoir “Lucky Man” as a testament to his positive outlook. He’s now working on his second memoir and continues to be a working actor. He most recently acted in “Designated Survivor” and it’s noted on IMDb that he’s currently filming the short “The Beast, Heroes of the Wildfire.”

Additionally, the 57-year-old Fox is also a champion for finding a cure for Parkinson’s via the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Regarding his foundation, Fox is quoted as saying, "To me, hope is informed optimism.”

Watch Michael J. Fox speak with Dennis Leary in their interview below:

What an inspiring man, don’t you think? It’s time to let others know about Michael J. Fox’s journey and spread the word on his optimism in the face of illness.