Luke Combs is opening up about his mental health.
The “Love You Anyway” singer recently joined Joe Rogan on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience (Mar. 21), where he discussed living with purely obsessional OCD.
Struggles With “Really, Really Bad OCD”
“I suffer from really bad, like really, really bad OCD. Like horrible [OCD],” Combs told Rogan.
When Rogan asked Combs to explain more about his condition, the 33-year-old country singer said the form of OCD he experiences is purely obsessional.
“Okay, so this is weird, almost not even necessarily probably considered legit, I would guess newer form [of OCD] and newer in medical terms because the eighties is when people were first exploring this type [of OCD],” Combs shared. “It would be called purely obsessional OCD.”
The country singer then went on to say purely obsessional OCD is not the type of OCD most people picture when they think of the condition and its associated rituals such as washing hands or checking doorknobs repeatedly.
“There’s These Unanswered Questions In Your Mind That Can Never Be Answered“
“So my thing, pure OCD is where there’s these unanswered questions in your mind that can never be answered, and the ritual is trying to find an answer.”
“Let’s say you’re super religious and at your core your belief in God or Jesus or like any religion really is the center part of your life, right? So one theme of it can be you have a thought, everybody has crazy thoughts that slip through their head every day and they come and go, it’s like somebody walking by you on the street, right?”
“They walk by and they go, ‘Oh that was weird I just had a thought about jumping into traffic. I don’t want to. That thought doesn’t even affect me in any way. It just comes and goes. It’s like a weird thought that’s a symptom of my brain, right? People like me become obsessed with the meaning of those thoughts and why they entered our brain when really they don’t mean anything,” he continued.
“So someone who really loves God and that’s a core part of their being, they would go, ‘Well what if I hate God?’ And that thought just, it comes and it’s gone as far as it can, that thought in your brain triggers a fight or flight response.”
“A Broken Circuit For Sure“
In sharing what triggers purely obsessional OCD, Combs described what it’s like to fall into a negative thought spiral and how people who experience it can become obsessed with why they’re having certain thoughts.
Combs also said that negative thought cycles pretty much come in waves that he can’t control and that being afraid of these negative thought cycles is what perpetuates them.
“It’s a broken circuit for sure. And you being afraid of it is what perpetuates it,” the country singer shared. “So the only answer to it is living with the uncertainty.”
“It’s Really Stuff That’s Out Of My Control“
Combs previously opened up about his OCD in August 2022 while promoting his third studio album, Growin’ Up, on The Kelleigh Bannen Show on Apple Music.
“[It] could be anything. It’s really stuff that’s out of my control, whether it’s my health. It’s just really insane. Stuff you could never get an answer to. So you have to learn to live with the uncertainty of never knowing becomes the only way to get over it,” he said.
Combs did, however, reveal that his OCD is not related to his music career and does not affect his ability to perform at the time.
New Album And Massive World Tour
Despite his experiences with purely obsessional OCD, Combs continues to maintain a successful music career.
Additionally, the country singer just released his fourth studio album, Gettin’ Old and kicked off his massive world tour last month (Mar. 25).
In addition, Combs and his wife, Nicole recently announced they are expecting their second son. The new addition will join the pair’s almost one-year-old son, Tex Lawrence.
