Hannah Murray has recalled suffering a psychotic breakdown after becoming involved with a wellness cult.

The former Game of Thrones and Skins actress, 36, says she now avoids meditation, yoga and crystal healing after the experience left her hospitalised and later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Hannah spoke about the experience in an interview with The Guardian ahead of the release of her memoir, The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness, with the actress - best known for playing Cassie Ainsworth in the cult E4 teen drama Skins and wildling Gilly in HBO fantasy phenomenon Game of Thrones - saying she was introduced to the group in 2017 while filming Detroit.

She revealed: "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."

The actress added she "had no idea (she) was going to go through any of the things in the book".

Hannah said: "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'. 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?'"

Hannah said she was first introduced to the alleged cult through an "energy healer" she met via her personal trainer while working on Kathryn Bigelow's 2017 film Detroit.

She added: "My own experience felt highly eroticised, without anything explicitly physical happening. There was just this charge to the energy in the room. I think there often is in these hierarchical spiritual organisations.

"I found it interesting that it was a primarily quite female space - the teachers, the healer - and then this man walks in and he's incredibly confident and magnetic.

"The first thing he says is a joke about sex. From this quite floaty, quite gentle, wishy-washy energy, it was suddenly, like, 'Hey, I'm here,' and, 'Let's f***.' I think he was doing that deliberately."

Hannah said she spent thousands of dollars in pursuit of "wisdom and specialness", before suffering a psychotic episode that resulted in her being admitted to a psychiatric unit.

She later received a bipolar disorder diagnosis.

The actress said she has since distanced herself entirely from the wellness world.

She added: "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 also confirmed she has stepped away from acting after a career that included roles in Charlie Says, Detroit and long-running acclaim for her performances in Skins and Game of Thrones.

Her comments come amid continuing debate around the booming wellness industry and online spiritual movements, with concerns over "manifestation" culture, life coaching and alternative healing practices increasingly discussed across social media and in recent documentaries.