For a decade, actress Bethany Joy Lenz was in a “bubble,” trapped in the beliefs of the cult she unwittingly joined while starring in the hit TV series “One Tree Hill. ”

“I decided what I wanted to believe and instead of being willing to look at the belief system and measure it, I adjusted everything around me to fit it,” she revealed in a new interview with People magazine.

“They were my only friends, I married into this group, I built my whole life around it, I gave up a lot of my career for it. The stakes were too high if I admitted I was wrong.”

Bethany Joy Lenz says she didn’t realize she had joined a cult. (Jamie McCarthy/WireImage/Getty Images)

Lenz, who is telling the shocking story in her upcoming book, “Dinner for a Vampire,” only began talking about her time in the cult last year. Ever since she was a child, the now 43-year-old actress said she longed for community.

“I [had] always been looking for a place to belong,” she explains. She notes that she was raised by a young father and mother, saying, “In all the wonderful things they did as parents, there was a void in [their] parenting, as we all do as parents. And it happened that my void intersected with my experience of growing up in the Protestant Church. And so I was looking for a place to belong that was also tied to a higher spiritual experience.”

Bethany Joy Lenz says that when she first joined the group, “everything seemed normal.” (Robby Klein/Getty Images for the American Heart Association)

“It seemed very normal,” Lenz said of her early interactions with the group, attending weekly Bible studies. “It was like that at first, then it morphed, but when it started morphing, I was so focused on relationships. And I was very young.”

She also played Haley James Scott in “One Tree Hill,” which was filmed in North Carolina.

Lenz eventually met a pastor, whom she identified as “Les,” who convinced her to move to Idaho and live in a commune-like community called “The Big House.” She claims the pastor not only controlled her life, but also her finances. “I don’t know if I like the term brainwashing,” Lenz said of the experience. “I think it was… more controlling.”

Bethany Joy Lenz moved to Idaho and lives in a commune-like community. (Robby Klein/Getty Images for the American Heart Association)

“For 10 years, I lived in this bubble of, ‘Unless you believe in the same God that I believe in, unless you believe in having relationships the same way that I believe in.’ [in]unless you do all the things on the same checklist that I do, then I can’t learn from you. You can’t teach me anything.’ … What a terrible mistake.”

“It looked very normal. At first it was like that, then it transformed, but when it started to transform, I was too focused on relationships. And I was very young.”

— Bethany Joy Lenz

Lenz eventually found the strength to leave the group, shortly after her daughter was born in 2011, fleeing to Hollywood where she originally started.

“Leaving a TV show after nine seasons, leaving all the friends I’ve made over the last 10 years, leaving my marriage, leaving the state, all at once, just me and my kids in Hollywood, like, ‘Can anyone rent me?’ I don’t know how I’m going to make rent, because all the money’s gone, it’s hard and legal,” Lenz told People.

Bethany Joy Lenz, pictured with her “One Tree Hill” co-stars, played Haley James Scott on the show for nine seasons. (Carley Margolis/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

“I cried on the floor so many times, just trying to figure out how to handle it and what I was going to do. And what to do with my emotions: the anger, the injustice.”

Bethany Joy Lenz’s book is out October 22. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Lenz said she is still recovering from her time in the cult.

“There’s no quick fix. But I don’t know that’s the point. I don’t think that’s the goal after going through trauma or suffering. [be] like, ‘Okay, how do I get through this?’”

“I’m still healing. It’s just day by day. Person by person. Interaction by interaction. Making the choice to trust someone you’re not sure you can trust, realizing you were right, you shouldn’t have trusted them. Finding out you were wrong and the little thing you say ‘I don’t know if I can trust this’ is probably just fear because of everything that happened.”

“I cried on the floor so many times, just trying to figure out how to handle it and what I was going to do. And what to do with my emotions: the anger, the injustice.”

— Bethany Joy Lenz

Bethany Joy Lenz says she didn’t write the book to get “revenge” on anyone. (Emily Assiran/Getty Images for That’s 4 Entertainment)

Lenz made it clear that she had no ulterior motives in telling her story. “I didn’t write this book to get revenge on anyone. I just wanted to tell the honest truth about what happened.”

“The more I get away from it, the more I see the blessings in it,” she told the outlet. First, she quoted her daughter: “I see a lot of good that came from going through it.” Lenz also believes she will help people “who have gone through this and don’t know what to do with their shame. People who are going through it now and don’t know how to identify what they’re feeling, but maybe they can recognize and see something in what I’m saying,” she added. “And help people who might be going through similar issues like this, and now they know what the red flags are to look for.”

“How did this happen? I don’t know, but I’m here and I’m grateful. I feel at peace.”