Viola Davis Addresses Health Woes While Revealing 'Debilitating' Battle With 'Unusual' Case of Shingles: 'Extraordinarily Painful'

Viola Davis opened up about her "unusual case" of shingles that left her in excruciating pain, initially believing a poisonous spider bit her.

The How to Get Away With Murder star, 61, explained that the disease came at a time when she was overworking herself, and one day she woke up with "debilitating pain."

"I was a new mom. I had just adopted my daughter. I was riding off of my Oscar nomination after The Help. So I was working, working, working, running myself into the ground," Davis explained in an interview published on Thursday, October 8.

"And then all of a sudden, I woke up with flu-like symptoms and an extraordinarily painful rash," she recalled. "I mean, I would put it a nine out of 10. It started on my stomach and it wrapped around to my back. It went away and then it came back with three blisters on my upper back. I was surprised how much pain it was. Hard to lay down, hard to get up, hard to walk. Nerve pain, all of that."

Davis initially thought a venomous insect or irritation from her gym belt was causing the pain, but learning it was actually shingles came as "the surprise of her life."

Shingles is a painful viral infection that causes a blistering rash, according to the Mayo Clinic. The infection stems from the same virus that causes chickenpox, which can remain dormant in nerve tissue for years.

Davis confessed that she knew "nothing" about the disease at the time of her diagnosis, which came as a shock because she believed she was doing everything right to stay healthy.

"I felt that I sort of was immune to any disease at that point because I worked out, I ate right. I felt that I was healthy because I did all the right things. And then all of a sudden, I have shingles," she told the outlet. "I felt like I was a soldier and the more that I could muster through, the stronger I was. I didn’t know that that’s not what strength is about. Strength is about sort of loving on your body and experiencing good health as you age."

The Help actress explained that her diagnosis taught her to pay closer attention to her body's signals, adding, "I felt like listening to your body was a weakness. It was gonna stop you. It was like a speed bump and I needed to keep my speed going."

"But you gotta feel like you are important enough, that life is not supposed to be lived with anything that causes you debilitating pain," she continued. "You gotta go to your doctor. You gotta go to your healthcare provider."