Alright, so I have recently been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, and I have been emetophobic since I was seven or so. Generally, the obsessive thoughts don't appear if I'm occupied with work, but today, I was rather distracted in a class by horrible mental images of people vomiting, both things I've seen/experienced and imagined scenarios, and I was shaken throughout the entire day, to the point where I was incapable of drawing in Graphic Design class because my hands were shaking so badly. I have always been scared of situations where I could catch diseases (compulsive hand-washer), but the mental images have never been so vivid. I washed my hands in scalding water with antibacterial soap for about five minutes straight afterward.
That night, when I got home, I decided to continue the process of cleaning my room (long overdue for a cleaning), and I was terrified that the dust on top of my bookshelf would trigger my gag reflex. I had been afraid of the effects on my lungs and the mites and asthma, but I started having really bad mental images again.
So, my question is: does anyone here also have OCD? How do you deal with obsessive thoughts? These thoughts are haunting and terrifying, and I just started work with a cognitive-behavioral therapist, but I would like some input from you as well.
tl;dr version: OCD is bad; how do I deal with it?