Mariska Hargitay has been playing beloved TV character Olivia Benson for almost half of her life, and while it “has surpassed my wildest dreams,” she admitted it has taken a toll. In a conversation with Selena Gomez for Interview magazine,

Special Victims Unit' star Mariska Hargitay admits she feels like a "victim of secondary trauma" after 25 years of solving sex crimes on the hit NBC series, adding, "When I started the show, I wasn’t aware of how deeply it would go into me.

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," said Mariska Hargitay.