Being an IT student, I was recently given some overview about design patterns by one of our teachers. I understood what they are for but some aspects still keep bugging me.

Are they really used by the majority of programmers?

Speaking of experience, I've had some troubles while programming, things I could not solve for a while, but google and some hours of research solved my problem. If somewhere in the web I find a way to solve my problem, is this a design pattern? Am I using it?

And also, do you (programmers) find yourself looking for patterns (where am I supposed to look btw?) when you start the development? If so, this is certainly a habit that I must start to embrace.