Luke Combs opens up about his battle with 'debilitating' health condition: 'It drives me crazy'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Luke Combs, 35, is opening up about his lifelong battle with a "debilitating" and rare form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The '1, 2 Many' singer recently appeared on '60 Minutes Australia' to discuss how the "all-consuming" condition affects his daily life.

Luke Combs says his OCD is 'particularly wicked'

Luke Combs admitted that he manages his anxiety and OCD, but the disorder still "tinges" his thoughts every day, sometimes leading to severe flare-ups.

Combs described his form of OCD as "more...obscure" than the way most people perceive the disorder.

"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," he said, Parade reported.

Combs added, "And you’re trying to get rid of them, but trying to get rid of them makes you have more of them."

Breaking the cycle is "very tedious," even though the singer considers himself "an expert" at managing it.

Unlike some OCD sufferers who display physical compulsions, Combs said his variant is internal.

"Giving any credence to what the thoughts are is irrelevant and only fuels you having more of them," he explained, adding that he has "to accept that they’re happening."

He continued, "It’s weird, sucks, hate it, drives me crazy, but…the less that you worry about why you’re having the thoughts, eventually they go away."

Luke Combs recalls 'worst flare-up' of OCD symptoms

During the interview, Luke Combs described how severe his OCD symptoms can become, especially during flare-ups.

The intrusive thoughts are "all-consuming" during "a really bad flare-up," lasting "45 seconds of every minute for weeks," said Combs.

He shared that the thoughts "range" from "intrusively violent" to more abstract subjects like religion, focusing on topics that have no clear answers.

"It’s really questions about who you are as a person," he stated. "That’s what fuels the anxiety, is that you can’t ever get an answer and you desperately want [one]," Combs said, as '60 Minutes' Adam Hegarty described the experience as "debilitating."

Luke Combs wants to help children struggling with OCD

Luke Combs first started experiencing symptoms at 12 years old and now wants to help others going through the same struggles.

"I definitely want to spend some time at some point in my life doing some outreach to kids that deal with this ’cause it held me back so many times in my life," said Combs.

Looking back, he recalled how difficult it was to cope with the disorder as a child. "You don't even know what it is at that time, you're just crippled by it," he admitted.

Despite his struggles, Combs remains hopeful and wants to inspire others dealing with OCD.

"I know I'm not going to be like this forever now…It’s possible to continue to live your life and be really successful and have a great family and achieve your dreams while also dealing with things that you don’t want to be dealing with," he said.

"I want to be an example for those kids that don't have any hope," Combs added.