The Great Divide came with a diagnosis that, Noah says, changed how he understood his mind
MMS Staff
13 Jun 2026
3-min read
Noah Kahan is the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who turned small-town sadness, folk-pop confessionals and brutally honest lyrics into a global moment with Stick Season.
Noah’s music has always felt like someone reading their diary out loud, which is exactly why fans connect with him so deeply. But while making his new album The Great Divide, Kahan was dealing with something even more private: an OCD diagnosis.
Released on April 24, 2026, The Great Divide debuted at No 1 on the Billboard 200, giving Kahan one of the biggest milestones of his career. But the album’s success sits beside a much quieter story about therapy, intrusive thoughts, shame, and what it means to finally have a name for what your mind has been doing for years.
OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, is still badly misunderstood. Pop culture often reduces it to being “too neat,” “too clean,” or “super organized.”
In real life, OCD can look very different. It can involve intrusive thoughts, fear, rumination, compulsions, mental checking, hidden rituals and intense distress. NIMH estimates that 2.3% of US adults experience OCD at some point in their lives, but many people still do not recognize it when it is not visible.
For Kahan, the breaking point came during the making of The Great Divide. He had started working on the album at Aaron Dessner’s Long Pond Studio in late 2024, then went to Joshua Tree in March 2025 hoping the desert quiet would help him write.
Instead, the isolation made his mental health worse.
In interviews, Kahan described experiencing a severe episode of intrusive thoughts. His mind convinced him that things had happened even when he knew they had not. He feared he had said something he never said, or harmed someone while driving, despite having no evidence.
That is one of the most difficult parts of OCD: the thought can feel terrifying even when the person knows it is not true.
For a long time, Kahan kept much of it to himself. Then a therapy session led to an OCD diagnosis. It helped him understand that what he had been living with was not simply anxiety, stress or overthinking. He began connecting the diagnosis to childhood rituals and mental patterns he had carried for years.
The diagnosis also changed how he understood OCD itself.
Kahan had once associated it mainly with visible compulsions, like repeated handwashing. Later, he learned that OCD can also be internal, quiet and deeply hidden. That is why casual comments like “I’m so OCD” can be harmful. They turn a real mental health condition into a punchline and make it harder for people to name what they are going through.
After returning home, Kahan began treatment and said his mental health improved. He felt more energetic and creative, and his collaborator Gabe Simon said Kahan is now in the healthiest place he has ever been.
Noah Kahan’s OCD diagnosis cuts through the stereotype that obsessive-compulsive disorder is just about tidiness or control.
It shows how intrusive thoughts and hidden rituals can exist behind public success, massive albums and sold-out rooms.
Accurate conversations around OCD, neurodiversity, therapy and mental health care do not erase the complexity of someone’s experience. They reduce shame. They make room for better language.
And for people quietly fighting their own minds, that can be the first step toward getting help that actually fits.
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