For me I think they both walk hand in hand. My constant worrying makes me do compulsive things to try to keep the object of my worry away. I used to freak out over the same thing driving to work. One day I hit a 4x4 someone left in the road the the noise was so loud it made me feel like if I hit something I would know and suddenly that piece went away. I still have anxieties over other things that cause my OCD to act up. I hope you feel better soon.

Well, OCD is an anxiety disorder, so yes it is totally normal for those things to go hand in hand. I think they are all basically the same thing anyway, its just how your symptoms manifest. For instance, I have had phobias, intrusive thoughts, checking issues, panic attacks, agoraphobia, hypochondria....basically everything. But I don't think I have separate disorders. I think I have one disorder...a worry disorder...that has many different symptoms.

Keeping busy is a great idea. The best thing I ever did for my intrusive thoughts I used to have....mainly that I would hurt my kids or stab myself with a knife....was desensitize myself to the thoughts. I journaled about my horrific thoughts in detail. I wrote out all the horrible scenarios in my head with blood and gore and all that stuff and then I made myself read these scenarios to myself over and over and over again. It got to the point where reading these scenarios bored me out of my mind and pretty soon I quit having the thoughts because I no longer was scared of them. This technique will work for any anxiety symptom over time, but it is especially useful for intrusive thoughts like hypochondria and fears of hurting somebody else.
Derek Soto has a lot of good OCD articles and free videos on line if you google them. He has some pretty useful OCD techniques in my opinion. They aren't the fanciest videos around, but the information is good.

Agree with Lilygirl. OCD is a sub-grouping of the overarching anxiety disorders. Those of us with OCD manifest our anxiety often times with obsessive or compulsive traits. As for your intrusive thoughts, that's what OCD does. You're going to have more when your anxiety level is up, so that's extremely common. Awareness is your key...if you can have the thought, then remember that its just OCD, you're much better off.

I know this sounds like a cliche but exercising really helps me when my anxiety becomes unbearable.

The annoying thing is that I become anxious when I feel worn out or dizzy, something which comes with exercise, so it is sort of bittersweet at the time - but once I rest afterwards I do notice a huge change mentally.

Everything becomes a lot more clearer, I don't sit for ages lost in the fog of my mind, and it's a lot easier to combat negative thoughts. Also over time my muscles get stronger which doesn't make me feel like I'm weak.

So that's what I do.

On a side note, my bf sometimes suffers from O.C.D
He says the best thing for him is to just let it out. He only gets the O.C.D when he is stressed out, so you know, one of those catch 22 situations...