Hannah Murray found the wellness business to be "seductive and addictive" during her younger years.

The 36-year-old actress - who is best known for playing Gilly in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones - became drawn into a wellness cult in her 20s, and after surviving life in the "the underbelly of the wellness and spiritual world", Hannah now stays away from the industry altogether.

The actress told the Guardian newspaper: "Even the tame stuff can feel quite distressing.

"I don't meditate any more. I wouldn't go into a crystal shop. I don't do yoga, because I don't quite know what might come up that might feel a bit too woo-woo for my personal threshold. But I realise now how pervasive it is.

"How often people you don't know will offer it as a remedy. You'll say, 'I'm not really sleeping,' and they'll say, 'Have you tried meditation?' It's everywhere, seen as an inherently positive solution. And there are harmless or positive versions.

"But as someone looking for something to fix me entirely, a magic wand or silver bullet, the promise felt seductive and addictive."

Hannah never imagined being exploited the way she was in her younger years. But the actress feels that it can quite easily happen to anyone.

The former Game of Thrones star - who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder - said: "It's easy to go, 'Well, that would never happen to me', but we do ourselves a disservice when we start saying that, because you don't know.

"I had no idea I was going to go through any of the things in the book. I would've assumed I couldn't, that I was safe. I was well educated, from a middle-class family; everything should have been fine. I thought, 'I'm smart. I make good choices.'"

Hannah now acknowledges making some "terrible choices" during her younger years, but she didn't appreciate the potential pitfalls at the time.

She said: "Well, I made terrible choices. But it's important to understand why people do these things, rather than going, 'Oh, they must be idiots.' Or, 'How stupid could you be?'"