Luke Combs Opens Up About His Fight With Pure O OCD

Luke Combs at the iHeart Country Festival in Austin, TX on May 4, 2019. Photo by David Bergman under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Country music superstar Luke Combs is pulling back the curtain on a deeply personal struggle — one that's been with him since childhood. The 35-year-old hitmaker recently revealed his battle with Pure Obsessional OCD, or Pure O, a lesser-known and particularly insidious form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Unlike the commonly recognized version of OCD, which often involves physical compulsions like excessive handwashing, Pure O manifests through relentless and often disturbing intrusive thoughts.

A Hidden Struggle

"When it hits, man, it can be all consuming," Combs shared in an interview with "60 Minutes Australia," according to the New York Post. "If you have a flare-up ... you could think about it 45 seconds of every minute for weeks."

What Is Pure O?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder affects roughly 2-3% of Americans, with Pure O being an unofficial subtype that mental health professionals use to describe cases dominated by obsessive thoughts rather than visible compulsions. Those with Pure O often endure an exhausting cycle: intrusive thoughts trigger anxiety, which in turn fuels more intrusive thoughts.

"They cause you stress, and then you're stressed out, and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts," Combs explained, as reported by the New York Post. "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."

These thoughts can range from health-related fears — Combs has worried obsessively about having a heart attack or stroke — to deeply distressing intrusive ideas about harming oneself or others. Many who suffer from Pure O experience immense guilt, mistakenly believing these thoughts reflect who they are as a person.

"They will identify with the thought and feel convinced it reveals something about who they are as a human being," said Dr. Nicholas Farrell, director of clinical development at NOCD, as reported by the New York Post.

The Long Road to Managing OCD

Combs has been battling OCD since he was 12. Despite being an award-winning musician with a skyrocketing career, his condition has at times felt debilitating. "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 ruins your life for six months," he admitted, according to the New York Post.

But over the years, he's developed ways to manage it. "It's really tedious to pull yourself out of it," he said, according to the New York Post. "It's weird, sucks, hate it, drives me crazy, but ... The less that you worry about having the thoughts, eventually they go away."

Treatments for OCD typically include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP), and medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Other self-help strategies, including mindfulness, deep breathing, and regular exercise, have been shown to help. Combs has also noted that lifestyle changes, such as improvements to his diet, have positively impacted his mental health.

Finding Strength in Fatherhood

While OCD has been a lifelong challenge, Combs says becoming a father has shifted his perspective. After welcoming his first son, Tex, in 2022, he noticed a significant change in how he processes worry and anxiety.

"There's stuff that used to matter, as far as the things that you worry about, you just don't really worry about that stuff anymore," he said in an interview with Apple Music Country, according to ABC News. "Almost instantly, you're just kind of like, 'Don't care about that. Don't care about that.'"

A Mission to Help Others

Despite the struggles, Combs is determined to turn his experience into something positive. He hopes to one day help kids who are battling OCD, just as he did.

"I want to be an example for those kids who don't have any hope," he said, according to ABC News. "You can still go on and do great things even though you're dealing with something that's really tough."

References: What is 'Pure O' OCD? Luke Combs shares 'wicked' disorder that can make you question your sexuality and religion | Country music star opens up about struggle with rare type of OCD