Luke Combs has spoken in the past about his ongoing battle with OCD and the intrusive thoughts that disrupt him. The "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" singer talked again about the troublesome issue on Monday, March 2, when he was a guest on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast. Combs previously shared that he has Pure O, which is purely obsessional obsessive-compulsive disorder. It involves thoughts rather than repetitive actions, for example. Halting the thoughts when they occur can be a real challenge.
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Combs said he experiences this insistent, disturbing thought pattern "about 95% of the day. From opening your eyes to closing them at night, you're thinking about this thing, and it's causing you a tremendous amount of anxiety and mental anguish to try and find the answer to this unanswerable question. It's scary."
Combs Described What He Goes Through
He related in detail what he deals with. It would be harrowing for anyone. Combs said, "Let's say I was having intrusive thoughts about committing violence against someone or something, and they're causing me all this stress, and I'm like, 'What does that mean about me? What does that say about me?' And then if my theme were to switch the next day, I'm like, 'What if I was a schizophrenic and I didn't know it?' And you're completely panicked, and you're all consumed by that."
As suddenly as the thoughts invade his mind, they can relent. "You're like, that was so stupid. Why did I waste three months of my life stressing about that thing? But when you're in it, you don't have the capability to turn it off. Your brain's just constantly bombarding you with these life-or-death feelings of, 'You need to address this issue. It's a big issue and it has to be addressed right now.' You're almost in fight or flight mode all the time, and it's just exhausting. You get so mentally exhausted having this battle with yourself."
He Knows How To Handle the Problem
Luke Combs knows how to grapple with the thoughts when they take hold. Perhaps the most important thing is that he does not let them rule his life or intimidate him. "I know what bad is. I've been to the bottom in here [indicating his head]. I'm not there. I still have the proclivity to go there if certain things line up and I were to have an OCD moment. But those moments are few and far between, and they're a lot shorter-lived than they used to be." And I'm not afraid of those moments anymore,"
