Luke Combs is doing all he can to be healthy, which for him means he also made a pretty big dietary change. The 34-year-old reveals he recently cut out gluten, not only for his physical health, but his mental health as well. Combs has been open about his battle with anxiety and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which he says became “crippling” over the summer, and impacted his everyday life.
After taking a food sensitivity test, the results showed he was highly sensitive to gluten, which Combs immediately eliminated from his diet.
“Ever since eliminating that, it’s changed my life mentally,” Combs tells ABC News.
Combs also has become a thinner version of himself, although he admits that wasn’t the original goal.
“There was no intent of, I should try to lose some weight,” Combs says, adding that his wife and two young boys are the main reason he wanted to get healthier.
“Longevity is the goal,” Combs shares. “Every day you get to spend with those guys is really fun and tough, and you need to be your best self to take care of them the way that you feel like they deserve to be taken care of.”
Combs feels better, but working on himself hasn’t been without its challenges.
“It’s a long process, man. It’s a long road,” Combs acknowledges. “It’s tough. It’s a challenge, man. I struggle with it every day.”
Combs opened up about his own mental health struggles in 2021, revealing he battled his anxiety issues since childhood.
“It’s something I’ve always struggled with, always affected me, ” Combs said on The Big Interview With Dan Rather. “First time I can remember was probably middle school, up to kind of the end of college. I still have my moments here and there, but it’s something that I’ve learned about, and it’s something I’ve been able to get a hold of. It’s been great to have felt free from those things for a long time.”
When Combs disclosed his own battles, he revealed he had Purely Obsessional OCD, which was impacting every area of his life.
“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 versions of fixing the blinds or straightening the carpet are thoughts that I play over and over in my head. Like, for example, it kind of comes in waves. It will be something about my health. I’ll be worried that I’m about to have a heart attack, or a stroke. It becomes this very obsessive thing that you literally can never have an answer to.
“That’s the awful part of it, is that you really have to be comfortable; you have to teach yourself to become comfortable with the fact that you will never get an answer, and that it is a super uncertain thing,” he continued. “That’s what I particularly have struggled with. And so sometimes that’s tough, but it’s something that you learn about yourself, and arm yourself with the knowledge of exactly what’s going on is the most important thing I’ve found.”
The Grand Ole Opry member also said that his own struggles with anxiety and OCD made it a challenge for him in his daily life, something he was always striving to overcome.
“Crippling is the word I would use,” Combs said on Apple Music Country’s Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen, adding that it can be triggered by a lot of things, but never walking on stage.
“[It] could be anything,” Combs added. “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.”
Find all of Combs’ music and upcoming shows at LukeCombs.com.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of the CMA