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Originally appeared on E! Online<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Reese Witherspoon<\/a> has lived and she\u2019s learned.<\/p>\n Indeed, the Morning Show<\/a> star detailed the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship when she was \u201creally young,\u201d including the insecurity and lack of confidence that followed \u2014 though it didn\u2019t necessarily show on the surface.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very good at being a professional and showing up and doing the right thing, but I wasn\u2019t emotionally mature when I was young,\u201d Witherspoon recalled during a Sept. 20 episode of The New York Times\u2019 The Interview <\/a>podcast. \u201cYou get into relationships that don\u2019t work for you, and sometimes you don\u2019t even see the dynamics that are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n And though she did eventually get out of the unhealthy relationship, Witherspoon was left with a distorted perception of herself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took me a while to reconstitute myself,\u201d the 49-year-old continued. \u201cMy spirit had been diminished because I thought all those awful things that person said about me were true. I had to rewire my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n PHOTOS<\/b> Reese Witherspoon’s Confirmed and Rumored Dating History<\/a><\/p>\n Since then, Witherspoon \u2014 who shares daughter Ava, 26, and son Deacon, 21, with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe<\/a> as well as son Tennessee, 13, with ex-husband Jim Toth<\/a> \u2014 has had time to focus on herself and her healing while navigating life in the public eye. <\/p>\n \u201cIt took me a long time to be this woman that I am now,\u201d she explained to host Lulu Garcia-Navarro. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to be a public figure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of compassion for people who live public lives and maintain privacy,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s nearly impossible at this point with everybody dehumanizing you in a certain way, taking pictures of you like you\u2019re an animal in the zoo instead of a person with their children or having a private moment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Legally Blonde<\/a> star\u2019s latest comments come seven years after she first got candid about how leaving an abusive relationship that involved both \u201cpsychological\u201d and \u201cverbal\u201d abuse ultimately allowed her to fulfill her destiny.<\/p>\n “I drew a line in the sand, and it got crossed, and my brain just switched,\u201d she told Oprah Winfrey<\/a> in the March 2018 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine<\/a>. \u201cI couldn’t go any further. I was really young, and it was profound.”<\/p>\n Without delving into the specific details, Witherspoon explained, “It changed who I was on a cellular level, the fact that I stood up for myself. It’s part of the reason I can stand up and say, ‘Yes, I’m ambitious.’ Because someone tried to take that from me.”<\/p>\n