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Carly Pearce is opening up about two mental health conditions that she says she’s dealt with since she was a child.
On the Monday, Aug. 25 episode of the Dumb Blonde podcast hosted by Bunnie Xo, the 35-year-old country singer revealed that anxiety and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) has been part of her life for as long as she can remember.
“I would have told you, like, three years ago, my anxiety started during my divorce in COVID,” she said of initially, incorrectly, stating the origin of the disorder. Her marriage to Michael Ray lasted from 2019 until 2020.
Pearce continued, “But I’ve 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.”
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The “Every Little Thing” singer said she would constantly have to make sure that “everything” was packed in her bag.
During storms, Pearce recalled her mom doing her best to put her daughter at ease. “I remember her taking me to the local library to meet a meteorologist to try to calm that. So, I’ve had anxiety my whole life. I still struggle with OCD,” she said.
Mayo Clinic defines anxiety disorders as involving “repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).”
Additionally, it categorizes OCD as “a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears known as obsessions” that lead to repetitive behaviors.
“I think it just really came to a head of me wanting to do something about it during COVID,” Pearce said, with the ladies noting that the disorders can get to be “so debilitating.”
Bunnie Xo shared insight into her mental health journey, admitting that after removing her implants in 2019, she “got hit with the worst suicidal ideation and depression I’ve ever had in my life.”
“And that was just the time that my body finally said, you can’t run anymore. Yep. You know, like you can try to fix it by having surgeries and do this and do that. But if you don’t fix what’s on the inside and what’s really going on in your heart and your soul, it’s gonna come out in other ways,” the podcaster said.
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For Pearce, having to stop doing shows while going through a public divorce was her turning point.
“I think my body just had, like, a visceral reaction of like, ‘Oh my God.’ And then I.. I mean, I can’t tell you how many interviews I sat through trying so hard to just, like, keep myself together,” the “We Don’t Fight Anymore” singer said. “It’s been like a journey for me.”
Therapy also helped Pearce realize her anxiety and OCD didn’t develop in 2020. “That’s been there since I was six or seven,” she said.
While trying her best not to blame her “perfectionist” mother, Pearce said she believed that how she was raised impacted her mental health.
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“I had a mom, and she’s still like this to this day. She’s the best, but she’s a perfectionist,” she said, going on to share “a core memory” that involved each of her Barbie shoes having to go in an exact spot.
“So 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’t mean to do that to me,” Pearce said.
“Wasn’t like she was like, you have to be this way. But I watched and led by example. Yeah. So then I wanted to have everything perfect,” she continued.
Pearce’s latest album, Hummingbird, was released in June 2024.
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
