Hannah Murray’s “The Make-Believe”: From Acting to a Memoir of Psychosis and Wellness-Cult Critique

In 2017, actress Hannah Murray suffered a psychotic break after months in an unnamed wellness cult that taught belief in personal healing powers. The episode led her to retire from acting, return to school, and spend seven years writing the memoir *The Make-Believe*, which recounts the events leading to her breakdown and her recovery.

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During her acting career, including roles as Cassie in *Skins* and Gilly in *Game of Thrones*, Murray repeatedly excavated personal trauma, a practice she later called “reckless” because it lacked boundaries. Seeking therapeutic release, she began private writing, eventually producing over 100,000 words. The work evolved from journal-like entries to a structured memoir after she recognized its broader relevance. Murray chose creative-writing studies over psychology, citing influence from Lisa Taddeo’s *Three Women* and Carmen Maria Machado’s *In the Dream House*.

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• 2017 – Psychotic break after months in wellness cult.

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• 2017-2024 – Seven-year period of writing, schooling, and memoir development.

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• Publication – *The Make-Believe* released (date not specified).

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Murray describes the memoir as a reflective effort aimed at accurately portraying psychosis rather than solving it. She criticizes the commodification of wellness, calling it a “pendulum of extremes” that drives costly self-care. She now prefers simple, free practices such as walking and journaling and has stopped meditation and yoga. On acting, she cites limited role choice and industry pressure as factors in her exhaustion and confirms she has no plans to return. She also stresses the value of personal “guardrails” to manage creative work.

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• “There was a core mystery for me at the heart of this experience — was it magic, or was I mad?” — Hannah Murray, Actress and Author

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• “It’s been really nice to have kind of real chats about real things.” — Hannah Murray, Actress and Author

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• “I really like things that feel incredibly simple, incredibly accessible, and free, like going for a walk or journaling every morning.” — Hannah Murray, Actress and Author

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• “Setting guardrails was super helpful, and I was quite disciplined about that.” — Hannah Murray, Actress and Author

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The memoir provides a first-person account of psychosis linked to a wellness-cult context, contributing to public discourse on mental-health representation and the commodification of wellness and self-care. Its reception among readers who identify with the described experiences suggests a demand for authentic narratives that challenge prevailing wellness narratives.

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The wellness cult remains unnamed, and external verification of its practices is absent from the sources. No independent data are provided regarding the prevalence of similar cult-related psychotic episodes, leaving a gap in contextual understanding.

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