Mariska Hargitay has suffered "secondary trauma" as a result of her long-running role on 'Law + Order: Special Victims Unit'

Speaking to Selena Gomez for Interview magazine, she said: "That's been a process. 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.

"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."

However, Mariska noted there has been a positive side to the gritty role because it inspired her to create the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004.

She added: "That's also why I started Joyful Heart [Foundation], so I would feel like, well, at least I'm doing something about it...

"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."

The actress is amazed she's been on the show for so long.

She said: "It totally feels crazy. I'm in denial about it. During, I call it the school year, there's so much to do and so many problems to fix and so many scenes to shape. And when there's so much to do, you just do it.

"There's not a lot of time in terms of sitting around thinking about it.

"I feel a little bit like I woke up one day and it was 25 years later."