\u201cI would have told you, like, three years ago, my anxiety started during my divorce in COVID,\u201d Pearce told host Bunnie Xo. \u201cBut I\u2019ve had crippling OCD since I was a child. So like checking my backpack over and over and over, checking my alarm over and over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember [my mom] taking me to the local library to meet a meteorologist to try to calm that. So, I\u2019ve had anxiety my whole life. I still struggle with OCD.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to the Mayo Clinic<\/a>, anxiety disorders can include \u201crepeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).\u201d OCD symptoms include \u201ca pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions\u201d that lead to repetitive behaviors.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old singer said it can be \u201cso debilitating\u201d at times, adding that removing her breast implants in 2019 led to \u201cthe worst suicidal ideation and depression I\u2019ve ever had in my life.\u201d <\/p>\n Pearce said some of her issues developed in childhood when she was \u201c6 or 7 years old.\u201d She described her mother as a \u201cperfectionist,\u201d recalling \u201ca core memory\u201d where Barbie shoes had to go in an exact spot.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I learned. She never left the house without her makeup on. She was always just so put together that I think that perfectionism just became not not intent. She didn\u2019t mean to do that to me,\u201d Pearce said. \u201cWasn\u2019t like she was like, \u2018You have to be this way.\u2019 But I watched and led by example. Yeah. So then I wanted to have everything perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n She also told the \u201cDumb Blonde\u201d podcast that her ACM-nominated song \u201cWhat He Didn\u2019t Do\u201d was inspired by her marriage to Ray, which lasted just 8 months.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking back on it, it was a hot and heavy lust. It wasn\u2019t love. It was just passionate,\u201d she told Xo. \u201cI knew the night I got married that I shouldn\u2019t have… I was embarrassed when [the divorce happened] and was heartbroken.\u201d<\/p>\n Pearce is a Grammy-winning country singer-songwriter known for songs like \u201cI Hope You\u2019re Happy Now\u201d (feat. Lee Brice), \u201cNext Girl,\u201d \u201cWhat He Didn\u2019t Do,\u201d \u201cEvery Little Thing,\u201d and \u201cWe Don\u2019t Fight Anymore\u201d (feat. Chris Stapleton). She\u2019s performed in Central New York multiple times, including at the Syracuse amphitheater opening for Kenny Chesney in 2022 and with Lady A in 2021.<\/p>\n Pearce will perform on the NYS Fair\u2019s Suburban Park stage Wednesday, Aug. 27<\/a>, at 8 p.m. The concert is free to attend with admission to the fair.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A country music star is opening up about mental health and her divorce ahead of her New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-112544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Carly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/NVKQU4TPSZG7DEQJ6SXFMYI3DU.jpeg\")
Carly Pearce performs onstage at The 56th Annual CMA Awards at Bridgestone Arena on November 9, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Loccisano\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"Kenny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Y3A3KFPNW5GFNEY2XQKFC35BPA.jpg\")
Carly Pearce performs at St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse, N.Y., on Aug. 11, 2022. Pearce opened the country concert for Kenny Chesney. (Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com)<\/p>\n