Carly Pearce Opens Up About Her Lifelong Battle with Severe OCD and Anxiety: ‘I Struggled to Make Everything Perfect’

The singer shared that she’s been dealing with these mental health challenges since she was about six or seven years old.

Carly Pearce is getting candid about her lifelong struggles with mental health, sharing that she’s been dealing with two conditions since childhood.

During the Aug. 25 episode of the Dumb Blonde podcast with host Bunnie Xo, the 35-year-old country artist opened up about living with both anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She explained that although she once thought her anxiety began during her divorce amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she has since realized the signs were there much earlier.

“I used to believe my anxiety only started around the time of my divorce during COVID,” she said, referring to her brief 2020 marriage to fellow country singer Michael Ray. “But I’ve actually had severe OCD since I was a kid—things like checking my backpack over and over, or making sure my alarm was set repeatedly.”

The “Every Little Thing” singer recalled being unable to leave her house without double- and triple-checking that every item was in her bag. During storms, her mother tried to ease her worries by introducing her to a local meteorologist at the library. “I’ve lived with anxiety my whole life. I still battle OCD,” Pearce admitted.

According to the Mayo Clinic, anxiety disorders are marked by sudden episodes of overwhelming fear or panic, while OCD involves recurring, unwanted thoughts and compulsions that drive repetitive behaviors.

Pearce said the turning point came during the pandemic, when she was unable to tour and was also going through a highly publicized split. “My body just kind of had this visceral reaction, like, ‘Oh my God,’” she said. “I can’t even count how many interviews I pushed through while just trying to hold myself together. It’s been a long journey.”

Therapy helped her recognize that her anxiety and OCD weren’t new developments. “They’ve been there since I was about six or seven,” she revealed.

Although Pearce emphasized that she doesn’t fault her mother, whom she described as a perfectionist, she believes her upbringing influenced the way her mental health challenges developed.