Law and Order star Mariska Hargitay reveals 'secondary trauma' after filming show for 25 years

Mariska Hargitay has been playing Olivia Benson for as long as many of us can remember, with the character being the longest-running live-action character in primetime TV history.

But working on Law and Order: SVU for 25 years is bound to have some sort of effect on mental health.

Hargitay confirmed so, telling Selena Gomez in a profile with Interview magazine that the dark subject matter of sexual assault and domestic violence has morphed the way she approaches everyday issues.

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"When I started the show, I wasn't aware of how deeply it would go into me. My husband Peter is always like, anytime I go anywhere, my first question is, What's the crime rate here?' So it's on the brain," she said.

"There's been times when I didn't know how to protect myself, and I think I was definitely a victim of secondary trauma from being inundated with these stories and knowing that they were true.

"Those were the parts that I didn't know how to metabolise, just because of the sheer volume of it."

She turned her horror into action, creating the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004, with a mission to "transform society's response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors' healing, and end this violence forever," according to their site.

"I learned that one in three women will be assaulted, and one in six men. That's when I started going, 'I have to do something,' because the show was obviously tackling the subject matter, but when I learned the statistics, I said, 'Why isn't everyone talking about this?' And if I didn't know, I figured nobody knows what an epidemic violence against women is," she told Gomez.

Despite the dark subject matter, she's glad it provides an avenue for her to do good.

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"I knew that [Law & Order creator] Dick Wolf had this incredible track record, and I knew how smart he was and how respectful he was of his audience," the 60-year-old shared.

"But this has surpassed my wildest dreams in terms of a career, but also in terms of personal fulfillment – that I could marry my acting with my philanthropy or with a personal mission to have a part in people's healing. I think about that often."

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