Noah Kahan Explains How Fear Led Him to Procrastinate Getting Help for His OCD
Noah Kahan Explains How Fear Led Him to Procrastinate Getting Help for His OCD
Ilana KaplanMon, April 6, 2026 at 8:26 PM UTC
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Noah Kahan revealed why he put off getting help for his OCD
"These problems were really hard for me and were disrupting my ability to wake up in the morning and to just be a human being," the singer-songwriter said during the Monday, April 6 episode of Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast
Kahan's Out of Body documentary will be released on Monday, April 13
Noah Kahan opened up about why he delayed getting an OCD diagnosis.
During the Monday, April 6 episode of Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast, the singer-songwriter spoke about why he hesitated getting help for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which according to the Mayo Clinic, "features a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions)."
"I used to believe [that healing reduces creativity] for sure," said Kahan, 29. "It came into the conversation when I started taking medication for my anxiety when I was in high school, and OCD diagnosis more recently. These problems were really hard for me and were disrupting my ability to wake up in the morning and to just be a human being."
Noah Kahan in April 2026Credit: Jay Shetty Podcast/YouTube
He continued, "But I was holding off on getting the help that I really needed for a long time because I was so afraid of it dulling my creativity. And then I would look at my creativity and be like, 'Well, this is not very good either.’ I’m not making anything good right now, I can barely put my pen to the paper. I can barely even process a single thought."
Kahan said he hesitated to get help because he was "worried that I’ll be happy and I won’t care about making something and I won’t feel pain and it won’t be painful enough for my audience and the feelings won’t be real enough for my audience."
Ultimately, the "Porch Light" musician realized he didn't want to live like was anymore.
Once he got the help he needed, Kahan discovered he was "still sad in a way that felt more manageable."
"I still had feeling and deep thoughts about things, but I wasn’t getting side-barred by rabbit holes of obsession and rabbit holes of anxiety anymore, and it really was a turning point for me making this record, was just like, taking the step off of the cliff so to speak into the unknown and again," he said of his forthcoming album The Great Divide.
For Kahan, the loss of "control" was scary. t’s a control thing. "But when I let go is when I found [my creativity] again," he said.
Noah Kahan in Charleston, S.C. in November 2024Credit: Derek White/Getty
After Kahan received his OCD diagnosis, he went to Joshua Tree to "find myself and make music."
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"[The diagnosis was] something I had suspected for a long time, and there’s so many varying kind of branches of this problem, and so I never really knew where I fit into the conversation," he said. "So I didn't want to like, get the diagnosis and be like, 'I have OCD now.' I was kind of scared.
While in Joshua Tree, Kahan was feeling "so miserable."
"I’m in this beautiful Airbnb, I’m in the desert. I’m like, 'This isn’t making me feel connected. Aw s---. I was so lost in that," he said.
While he noted that the trip was "horrible," he also found it "incredibly enlightening."
"I was like, ‘Alright, that was my last try.’ Just hoping life fixes this for me," said Kahan.
Speaking with TIME in October 2023, the "Stick Season" hitmaker spoke about how he coped with his mental health in his 20s.
"I tried medications but felt unequipped to deal with the side effects, in particular the dulling sensation that made it hard for me to write songs," said Kahan. "I would quit them cold turkey and hope I could figure it out myself, ultimately leading to a downward spiral. I cycled through dark, months-long depressive episodes, half committing to one treatment then relapsing into old habits again."
At the time, he "slowed down creatively, and emotionally drifted away from my work."
Kahan's documentary Out of Body, which follows a year and a half of his life, beginning amid the massive success of his song "Stick Season" as he grapples with fame, mental health and self image, debuts on Netflix on April 13.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
