Aubrey Plaza had huge realization after stroke left her paralyzed mid-sentence
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Film and TV, US News
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: The Howard Stern Show/YouTube
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Film and TV, US News
Parks and Rec actor Aubrey Plaza has opened up about the moment her brain started 'malfunctioning' when she had a stroke.
The 40-year-old actor - also known for her roles in White Lotus and Agatha All Along - experienced a stroke at the age of just 20 years old and explains that it saw her feeling disconnected from her own brain.
Plaza previously revealed to NPR that she first knew something was wrong when she 'blacked out for a second'.
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She said: "I remember there was just like a really loud kind of sound happening. And I brought my hands to my throat, and I was kind of making like an ah (ph) sound because I couldn’t talk because the blood clot was in my language center of my brain.
"So I had expressive aphasia instantly, which means that if you’re talking to me, I could understand what you’re saying in my mind and understand how to respond. But I couldn’t actually get it out. I couldn’t actually talk."
In September, Plaza sat down with Howard Stern for his SiriusXM show and revealed she was actually temporarily paralyzed by the stroke, branding the whole experience 'wild'.
And there was a certain realization that occurred to her by the time the paramedics were with her, too.
"I lost my motor skills really briefly. The freakiest thing was I forgot how to talk," she said. "But oh God the thing that you realize when you have a stroke or that some people might realize is that like you start to understand that your brain is not you because there was me and then there was my brain that was malfunctioning.
"And that was the moment that I had where I went, 'Well, whoa, whoa, whoa, how am I conscious? That my brain can't say these words, when me as me knows what the answer is?'
"Because the paramedics were asking me questions and me as me, whatever that is, soul me, higher me, whatever me is, was going, 'The answer is yogurt'.
"They're going, 'What you have for breakfast?' And I'm going in my head, say yogurt brain [...] but I couldn't do it."
While it was 'terrifying,' Plaza noted she knew there was 'more going on' because she was 'watching [her] brain malfunction'.
Plaza was rushed to ER where she says she sat for 'about two hours' before she was examined because the star 'physically looked fine' but she 'couldn't talk and [...] was confused' and 'also couldn't write'.
Thankfully, after being transferred to a stroke unit and taking part in cognitive therapy, her brain began to 'heal itself'.
If you've been affected by the contents of this article you can find more information about where to get help from The American Stroke Association via their website.