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Opening up about some very personal mental health struggles. In an interview with Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast this week ahead of the release of his sixth studio album The Way I Am, Luke Combs discussed his lifelong battle with OCD, which is a topic he’s actually spoken about quite a bit over the last several years. On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, last year Luke talked about the form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) he has, saying it’s called Pure OCD, and while he knows how to manage it better than he did when he was younger, he explained in great detail what it’s like and how it can take over someone’s thoughts completely and it can be pretty debilitating. While many of us probably think of OCD as a habit someone has to fix the tilt of a picture frame or make sure everything is in line and perfect, that’s not what it really looks like in reality for a lot of people, and Luke explained just how tough that can be constantly battling intrusive thoughts: “There’s people that are like, ‘Am I gay? Am I a pedophile? Am I a serial killer?’ Driving down the road, am I gonna just swerve into this traffic? It’s like, you’re not ever going to do that, but your brain… it’s like seeing a grizzly bear come out of the woods in your mind. The threat is not real, but it’s like, it was real because I thought it for a second. It’s that. People have those kind of thoughts all the time and they’re like, obviously, it’s like a bird flying by. You go, ‘Oh there’s a bird. It’s all good.’ And then you’re like, ‘What was that bird? What was that? Why did that bird fly by?’ And then, the more you wonder why the bird flew by, the more it’s gonna fly by. Your brain is like, I need to send that thought again, because you’re worried about it. You being worried about it must mean something. But it really doesn’t mean anything, but the more you think about it, the more it starts showing up, it starts going by and by. And you start wondering more and more and more, and you do things mentally, ritualistically to alleviate the anxiety of the bird showing up.” He has also noted in other interviews that he remembers first struggling with it in middle school and had difficulty getting a grip on it until college, and while talking to Shetty, Combs says it takes up his thought process “about 95% of the day”: “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.” Luke continued, saying his OCD is “theme-based,” and he gets hyper-fixated on certain things: “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.” He also pointed out that the thoughts can go away at any moments, and then he can look back and realize how ridiculous it sounded and how much time he wasted on whatever topic or issue it was he was ruminating on: “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.” Luke also admitted he’s “been to the bottom” mentally because of his OCD, but he’s learned how to handle it better over the years and it doesn’t scare him as much: “I know what bad is. I’ve been to the bottom in here. 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.” I think it’s commendable that Combs continues to be open about his struggles in this aspect because it’s something so many people struggle with and in many ways, he’s an unexpected advocate who does use his platform to share what he’s gone through. Luke’s new album is set for release on March 30th, and he will hit the road for his My Kinda Saturday Night tour in April. The full interview is available below. My Kinda Saturday Night tour dates: April 4—Charlottesville, VA—Scott Stadium† April 11—Ames, IA—Jack Trice Stadium† April 18—South Bend, IN—Notre Dame Stadium† April 25—Columbus, OH—Ohio Stadium† May 2—Knoxville, TN—Neyland Stadium† May 9—Norman, OK—Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium† May 16—Green Bay, WI—Lambeau Field† May 30—Montreal, Quebec—Parc Jean-Drapeau† June 6—Toronto, Ontario—Rogers Stadium† July 4—Gothenburg, Sweden—Ullevi‡ July 7—Paris, France—Accor Arena§ July 11—Amsterdam, Netherlands—Johan Cruijff ArenA‡ July 18—Ireland—Slane Castle‡ July 25—Edinburgh, U.K.—Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium+ August 1—London, U.K.—Wembley Stadium# *with special guests Dierks Bentley, Ty Myers and Thelma & James †with special guests Dierks Bentley, Ty Myers, Jake Worthington and Thelma & James ‡with special guests The Script, Ty Myers and The Castellows §with special guests Ty Myers and The Castellows +with special guests The Teskey Brothers, Ty Myers and The Castellows #with special guests Thomas Rhett, Ty Myers and The Castellows “Be By You” The post “From Opening Your Eyes To Closing Them At Night”: At Its Worst, Luke Combs Was Battling His OCD Thoughts 95% Of The Day first appeared on Whiskey Riff.