A Skins and Game of Thrones star based in Norwich has spoken publicly about a psychotic episode.
Hannah Murray, who played Cassie in Skins and Gilly in Game of Thrones, was hospitalised after the episode, triggered by her involvement in a wellness cult.
Her experience is detailed in her forthcoming memoir, The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness, which will be published on Thursday.
In an interview with The Guardian, she 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."
Murray explained that she was first introduced to the group by an "energy healer" and gradually became more involved by attending classes.
She eventually met the leader of the group, who “exuded power in a way I had never known anyone to exude it”.
Murray said her childhood love of Harry Potter made her more vulnerable to magical thinking, which the cult reinforced.
She said that during the most intense period of her involvement, she was sleeping very little and speaking rapidly - symptoms of what would later be diagnosed as bipolar disorder.
While taking part in a five-day course, she began to hallucinate symbols and said she could hear the leader’s voice in her head.
She was eventually taken to Gordon Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, where she stayed for 28 days under the Mental Health Act.
Following her diagnosis, Murray retired from acting.
She completed an MA degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a distinction.
According to the Creative Artists Agency website, she has stayed in the area.
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