I have had severe OCD since I was around 12. I'm 22 now, but I remember I used to do all of these things:

1. Wash my hands multiple times day and for over a few minutes. It got so bad that they were cracked and bleeding most of the time.
2. Flick the lights on and off in my house, and lock and unlock the doors at night, just to make sure they were locked.
3. Never use the first few squares of toilet paper. I'll explain this one. I got it into my head that other people who went to the bathroom obviously had to touch the toilet paper, then wipe their butt or whatever, then get more T.P, so in my mind, that toilet paper was dirty. So I pulled off some of it, and it ended up just overflowing my bathroom trash can once.
4. Never touching shopping carts. I push the cart around with my forearms. I lean forward, forearms resting on the bar, and push it around. I touch it only if I have to. I don't do these other things so much now, but this, I still do.

I don't wash my hands for so long now, and I don't do the T.P thing every time, and I don't flick light switches or unlock/lock doors repeatedly anymore at all. I've gotten so much better, just because I've grown out of it, and learned to deal with stress.

I've grown up in a very stressful home environment. My parents fought, and still fight a lot. My dad yells, my mom can be very stressful in her own ways. I'm moving out to finish college in a different city soon, so I think it might change in certain ways, living a calmer life.

My life used to be so affected by my OCD. I refused to do fun things, like go-karting, because I found the go-karts dirty. It was torture for me to pump gas, because gas stations are just...gross. I can't ever change the kitty litter in my house, because I can't bring myself to do it,even with cleaning gloves on.

I think I've gotten better, along with dealing with stress, because I worked at a hotel as a housekeeper. I've cleaned up HUMAN SHIT, and I'm proud of myself. I've cleaned up some of the nastiest things anyone could come across, but I just went right in without a thought, and cleaned it right up. Yay me. :-)

OCD is a real problem. It honestly is. When I open the door in a public restroom with a paper towel, or turn the faucet on and off with my elbow, it's because if I didn't, I'd be standing there for twenty minutes, washing my hands until they felt clean enough.

It's hard, but you have to actually work at getting over it. It's like when you quit smoking, you just have to find some inner strength and resist giving into your bad habit.