Céline Dion is showing all the toughest moments in her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS). In her new documentary, I Am: Celine Dion , the GRAMMY winner is seen during moments of immense pain, and even a startling seizure which lasts for several minutes, "I don't know how to express it, like, it's just ..
. you know, like, to not have control of yourself?" she tells the cameras. In December 2022, Dion revealed that -- after months of struggling with heath issues, including muscle spasms and stiffness -- she had officially been diagnosed with SPS, a rare autoimmune disorder.
According to the Mayo Clinic , Stiff Person Syndrome is "a rare disorder of motor function characterized by involuntary stiffness of axial muscles and superimposed painful muscle spasms, which are often induced by startle or emotional stimuli." I Am: Celine Dion doesn't shy away from showing Dion's new reality with her illness, as she strives to live and perform like usual, but is occasionally sidelined by scary seizures. During one moment in the doc, the 56-year-old singer is paralyzed for several minutes as she suffers a full-body seizure after a medical evaluation.
"Part of the disease is that as soon as you go into a contraction, sometimes ...
the signal to release it, doesn’t understand, so it ends up just staying in a contracted position,” explains sports medicine therapist Terrill Lobo. The medical team treats Dion with Valium and nasal spray, but when her symptoms persist and even get wor.