Luke Combs details struggles with “obscure” type of OCD

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Luke Combs has spoken about his experiences with an “obscure” type of OCD.

Combs explained in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia that he struggles with a type of OCD known as ‘pure O’, where he experiences “intrusively violent thoughts”. In ‘pure O’, the compulsions used to deal with these intrusive thoughts come in the form of mental rituals.

“It’s thoughts, essentially, that you don’t want to have,” Combs explained. “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, but trying to get rid of them makes you have more of them.”

“That’s what fuels the anxiety is you can’t ever get an answer and you desperately want an answer for whatever this thing that’s bothering you is,” Combs continued.

“But learning to [think that] it doesn’t matter what the answer is, is the freedom to just go, ‘I don’t have to have an answer to that question.’”

Combs has lived with the condition since his early teens and admitted that it has held him back at various points in his life. “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,” he said.

He added that he wanted other people who have pure O to know that “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 things that you don’t want to be dealing with.”

“That’s something I hope people take away from me regardless of my musical success,” he added.

George Ezra has also spoken about his struggles with pure O and said in 2020 that he was undergoing therapy for it.

Elsewhere, Combs has been confirmed to be appearing at various festivals this summer, including Bonnaroo and Boston Calling.