Sarah Hyland doesn't know if she will ever be "fully healed" from experiencing domestic violence.
The 'Modern Family' actress - who secured a restraining order against ex-boyfriend Matt Prokop in 2014 amid allegations he had verbally and physically abused her during their five-year relationship - has spoken of the importance of sharing such experiences in order to make victims feel less isolated and more confident about opening up about their own ordeals.
Accepting Variety's Courage Award for her work with animal welfare and domestic abuse awareness, she told the outlet: “For thousands of years now, we didn’t talk about it.
"The community hasn’t shared enough, I believe. And I feel that if we talk about it more, more women — and men and just human beings in general in abusive relationships — will feel more comfortable to be able to talk about it with their loved ones instead of letting their abuser isolate them from everyone, which is the first thing that they do, so that you don’t have that community."
The 33-year-old star believes "talking about it" is "really important" to helping those in need and reflected how PTSD sparked by their experiences can impact survivors long after their relationships have ended.
She added: "[It stays] in that abused place of your soul, where you think it’s your fault the whole time and you could have done better, you could have gotten out sooner, you could have told people.
"It's almost like you don’t wanna talk about it anymore. You want it to be done, and that’s that.
“I completely understand the dissociation pattern of it. I am very much guilty about it myself… until something happens where I’m triggered, and I didn’t realise that part of myself had been healed.
"I don’t know if that part [of] any woman will ever be fully healed from that. It’s something that kind of scars her soul a little bit. It’s more so putting love towards that scar instead of hating it and ignoring it.”
Sarah - who is now married to Wells Adams - credited her beloved dog for helping her through he toughest times, but also noticed pets can be used as pawns in domestic abuse situations.
She said: “A lot of people who have been in an abusive relationship have had pets.
"I wouldn’t have been able to get through a lot of times without my dog.
"But then, at the same time … animals can be used as a manipulation and used as tactic as well. Their lives are then, therefore, put on the line [to] try to hurt someone through an animal.”
