{"id":78416,"date":"2025-08-18T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78416\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:02:07","slug":"luke-combs-explains-ocd-diagnosis-and-taking-preventative-measures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/78416\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Combs Explains OCD Diagnosis and Taking Preventative Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLiving with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an unending battle<\/a> for Luke Combs<\/a>. During a recent appearance on Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard<\/a>, the musician dismissed the idea that some elements of the condition could be seen as beneficial, rather than a relentless internal unraveling. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s part of my success at all,\u201d he said. \u201cIf I just never had it that would be awesome. There\u2019s no good parts of it other than when you don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs has detailed his experience with OCD in the past, explaining that he struggles with a form of OCD called \u201cPure O,\u201d or primarily obsessional OCD. While this specification is not a distinguished diagnosis in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), it has been used to describe the presence of obsessional mental symptoms resulting in \u201cintrusively violent thoughts\u201d and extreme, constant anxiety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like a bird flying by. You just go, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a bird,\u2019 and then you\u2019re like, \u2018What was that bird? Why did that bird fly by?\u2019 And then the more you wonder why the flew by, the more it starts flying by,\u201d Combs said in an example of the rapid thought patterns that can occupy his mind for extensive periods of time. \u201cYour brain\u2019s like, \u2018I need to send that thought again, because you\u2019re worried about it and you being worried about it must mean something.\u2019 Really, it doesn\u2019t mean anything. Then the more you think about it, the more it starts showing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs was initially diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder as a teenager, but felt that it didn\u2019t encompass his experience. \u201cOnce I found the Pure O thing, it was like, oh my God, this is what I have,\u201d he said. It eventually became easier to notice manifestations of the disorder.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt preys on everything you\u2019re not, and it makes you feel like you are that,\u201d Combs said. \u201cIn some ways, your deepest fear is being something that you\u2019re not. That\u2019s rooted in this somehow.\u201d The condition has caused him to experience what he calls \u201crelationship OCD.\u201d \u201cOne of the themes of Pure O is like, do I really love my wife? Do I really love my kids?\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd obviously you do. You wouldn\u2019t be worried about it if you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile there isn\u2019t a perfect solution, Combs has studied the patterns of how his OCD presents itself in order to take preventative measures against it, like removing gluten from his diet to reduce inflammation. \u201cFor me it was like, man, how can I just change what I\u2019m eating, what I\u2019m doing, just everything,\u201d he said. \u201cMy life revolves around preventing it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tCombs has found that his symptoms have been alleviated over time, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s been something that\u2019s gotten better for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an unending battle for Luke Combs. During a recent appearance on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,63,137,32870,514,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-78416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-luke-combs","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}