Luke Combs said he recently experienced one of the most intense anxiety flare-ups in the past few years due to a rare mental illness.
The 35-year-old country star has previously discussed his lifelong struggle with purely obsessional OCD, a subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder that he called “particularly wicked.”
While many people associate OCD with a compulsive need to flicker lights, Combs said in a recent 60 Minutes interview that there’s no outward manifestation or visible behavior but rather a debilitating anxiety.
“The craziness of the particular disorder that I have, it’s the way to get out of it,” Combs told interviewer Adam Hegarty in the video posted last month. “Like, it doesn’t matter what the thoughts even are. You giving any credence to what the thoughts are is irrelevant and only fuels you having more of them.”
The “When It Rains It Pours” singer said when experiencing a flare-up, he would fixate on a thought for 45 seconds of every minute for weeks. The fixations would s range from intrusively violent thoughts or ideas of religion to self-reflective questions like who is he as a person.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
But over time, Combs said he has learned how to better navigate his OCD by accepting the thoughts circling his mind.
“It held me back so many times in my life where you’re trying to accomplish something, you’re doing really great, and then you have a flare-up, and it just like ruins your whole life for six months,” he said. “When it happens now, I’m not afraid of it because I’m not like, ‘What if I’m like this forever?’ I know I’m not going to be like this forever now.”
What is OCD?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, more commonly known as OCD, is a mental health disorder that causes people to obsess over thoughts or fears that can be unwanted, intrusive, and irrational. The disorder causes people to engage in repetitive behaviors that are difficult to break and cause distress.
Juanita Guerra, a New York clinical psychologist practicing meditation, previously told USA TODAY that the disorder can trap someone in “a vicious cycle of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.”
“It’s hard to describe the mindset that’s going on in the OCD. So it’s like, whenever you’re having one of those situations come up, you truly – whatever it may be – you think the worst possible situation’s going to come of it,” Guerra said. “It could be the most unrealistic, crazy, unimaginable thing.”
When did Combs first experience OCD and anxiety?
Combs first experienced anxiety from his OCD when he was in middle school, the North Carolina native said in a 2021 episode of AXS TV’s “The Big Interview.”
“I know when you see people that have OCD you think of them like messing with the blinds or straightening the carpet,” Combs said. “Essentially my version of fixing the blinds or straightening the carpet is kind of thoughts that I play over and over in my head.”
“For example … it’ll be something about my health,” he said. “Like I’ll be worried that I’m about to have a heart attack or a stroke and it becomes this very obsessive thing that you can never have an answer to. That’s kind of the awful part of it. You have to teach yourself to be comfortable with the fact you’ll never get an answer.”
Contributing: David Oliver and Gary Dinges, USA TODAY
