Luke Combs Uses 1 Word to Describe 'Debilitating' Health Condition
Luke Combs is opening up about his struggles with mental health in the hope of helping others. In a February interview with 60 Minutes Australia, the country singer shared that he's been dealing with purely obsessional obsessive-compulsive disorder, also known as Pure O, since he was 12 years old. He also added that he's been going through the "worst flare-up" in years while touring.
In the interview, Combs stated, "It's thoughts, essentially, that you don't want to have... and then they cause you stress, and then you're stressed out, and then the stress causes you to have more of the thoughts, and 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."
He also used one strong word to describe the condition: "wicked."
Combs further explained that the variant has is "particularly wicked because there's no outward manifestation of it."
The good news is that Combs also says he feels "lucky" to be an "expert" on Pure O, because he's battled it for so long. Because of his knowledge and experience with Pure O, he says he understands "how to get out of it now."
"When it hits, man, it can be all-consuming," he said, also saying that if he's going through a really hard time with it, it can last "45 seconds of every minute for weeks."
So, how do you get rid of it? Don't let your thoughts rule you, Combs explains, stating, "The way to get out of it is, like, it doesn't matter what the thoughts even are. You giving any credence to what the thoughts are is, like, irrelevant and only fuels you having more of them."
According to Healthline, individuals "who feel compelled to carry out mental rituals in response to distressing, persistent intrusive thoughts may have pure obsessional obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)."
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