Hannah Murray has discussed her involvement in a wellness cult and a severe psychotic episode that led to hospitalization and a 28-day detention under the Mental Health Act.
Speaking to The Guardian, the 36-year-old actress said she was drawn into an exploitative spiritual group led by an “energy healer” after a challenging time on set.
The session which kicked off as wellness guidance soon developed into expensive and manipulative classes that she later called as a pyramid-like system led by a central figure.
The actress started saying, “There's not enough critical thought about wellness,” Murray told the outlet. “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.”
She continued, “I was well educated, from a middle-class family; everything should have been fine,” she continued. “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?' ”
Murray said her condition aggravated, as she started experiencing hallucinations, mania, and delusions during a five-day course in London, where she believed a spiritual leader had special powers and intended to marry her.
Later on, the Game of Thrones alum became severely unwell, and was immediately rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.
During the treatment, Hannah got diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which she says helped explain her experiences.
The actress underscored that her story emphasizes how anyone can become vulnerable to controlling and highly-sensitive environments.
While adding to the conversation, Hannah said sharing her experience is important to show that people who go through such episodes are not “bad or broken,” and recovery and understanding are possible.
