Luke Combs Opens up About His Struggles With “Obscure Form of OCD,” Anxiety, and the “Worst Flare-Up” He’s Had

Luke Combs has recently been tearing up Australia in the country’s first country music stadium headlining tour. Between January and February, Combs played eight shows in both New Zealand and Australia. Specifically, the country music phenom has performed in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Aukland, New Zealand. Thanks to his success in Australia, Combs has been doing far more than just gracing the stage, as he recently sat down with 60 Minutes Australia.

Videos by American Songwriter

In his interview, Combs discussed the obvious factors such as the issues with fame, the importance of music, and several other generic topics. However, Combs also transparently divulged a fairly personal fact—His ongoing battle with anxiety

Luke Combs Peels Himself Open

Many musicians would seemingly never have the confidence to divulge a fact such as this one. Though, the down-to-earth Luke Combs took no issue with sharing his personal strife. Combs started his interview by stating, “Probably the worst flare-up of it I’ve had in, I would say three or four years, started about two days before this trip.” “It’s something that in some way I at least think about every day.”

OCD is not the exact disorder Combs has, rather, he has an obscure form of the disorder simply called, Pure O. “It’s more of an obscure form of OCD,” stated Combs, and its a disorder he has been living with since he was 12-years-old. Given his longtime relationship with the anxiety disorder, Combs says he is an “expert in how to get out of it now.”

Combs described the disorder by saying, “It’s thoughts essentially that you don’t want to have that you’re having, and then they cause you stress, and then you’re stressed out and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts and then you don’t understand why you’re having them, and you’re trying to get rid of them.”

Combs reasoning for sharing this personal piece of information is simple, he wants to use his platform to spread awareness. “So the message is, if there’s someone out there that’s struggling with it, it’s possible to continue to live your life and be really successful and have a great family and achieve your dreams while also dealing with, you know, things that you don’t want to be dealing with,” concluded Luke Combs.

Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for CMA