Luke Combs is bravely opening up about his mental health. The father of two has been open about his battle with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and anxiety, but is now revealing how debilitating it can be for him.
“It’s something that in some way I at least think about every day,” Combs reveals on 60 Minutes Australia. “There’s some tinge of it to some extent every day … The craziness of the particular disorder that I have, it’s the way to get out of it. It doesn’t matter what the thoughts are. You giving any credence to what the thoughts are is irrelevant and only fuels you having more of them.”
For Combs, it’s something he has been fighting for years. The one thing that isn’t constant is what he worries about.
“I know when you see people that have OCD you think of them like messing with the blinds or straightening the carpet,” Combs says. “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 continues. “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.”
Combs has sold out some of the largest venues across the globe. It’s a testament to his determination to not let his own mental health struggles dominate his life
“There’s no outward manifestation of it, right? Like you’re talking about the flicking of a light switch, but for me, it’s all going on in [my head],” Combs explains. “When someone else flicks a light switch, you can see it happening. But for someone like myself, you wouldn’t even know what’s going on—it could be happening right now and you wouldn’t even realise it.”
Combs says when it happens, the intrusive thoughts can happen “45 seconds of every minute for weeks.” Living with his OCD and anxiety has not been easy for Combs, by any means. Still, he has learned to overcome his own internal battles, and vows to keep fighting for his own mental health.
“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,” Combs admits. “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.”
While there has not been a cure for Combs’ OCD and anxiety, he has found one thing that helps: changing his diet. Combs gave up gluten, and immediately saw results.
“Ever since eliminating that, it’s changed my life mentally,” Combs tells ABC News. As a result, Combs also shed some pounds, although he is quick to add that it wasn’t the original goal.
“There was no intent of, I should try to lose some weight,” he concedes.
Find all of Combs’ music and upcoming shows at LukeCombs.com.
Photo Credit: Zach Massey