[Crazy Cupcakes]

My flatmate and I haven't exactly been getting along. We've both got problems with OCD and anxiety, and I have PTSD. It makes living together somewhat difficult to say the least, especially at the moment since her OCD is really bad in relation to normal and I'm constantly panicky about noise and being near people. My flatmate is one of the loudest people I've ever met. She cannot walk quietly to save her life (think elephant style stomping all the time), she can't talk quietly (I can hear her in the stairway when she's on the phone at the far end of the flat, and we have very thick doors), she can't watch TV or listen to music quietly (the volume is 3 times the level I have it set at). I just can't stand the level of noise in this place! I go for a shower, which is anxiety provoking in itself, and when I come out, I'm bombarded with noise from her iPod blaring or from the TV up at some ridiculous volume, or her shouting on the phone. Then I end up having panic attacks or losing time somewhere and come out the bathroom sometimes several hours after I went for my shower.

The problems I've been having generally annoy my flatmate, but then her problems annoy me too so we just get on with it. However things came to a head when I lost 3 hours and woke up on the bathroom floor, curled up in a ball, convinced there had been a party in the building that I had been hiding from. She got really angry because she had to pee and I was hiding with the door locked. It turned out she'd had a music channel on at a stupidly high volume when I'd come out the shower and I must have just freaked out. She knows I'm like this, so why does she insist on being loud?!

So the next day, I avoided being in the flat after uni and came back to her having gone a bit over the top on the cleaning front. And having moved my stuff (which is a big no-no for my OCD). So I got really angry, which is unusual for me, and piled her clothes up, in the same way she'd done to mine, on top of the clothes drier in the bathroom. Needless to say she went ape and sent an angry text message demanding an explanation. I explained that I did it out of anger purely because she'd done the same, and she got even more annoyed because apparently she can't help having OCD and I need to accept that she 'had to' because she lives here too. I don't see why she only cleaned up MY stuff though?! Her clothes were still hanging, when she'd piled mine up outside my door, for example.

She then stormed out the flat last night and didn't cope back until I told her I was locking the door (which would stop her getting back in again) because I was going to bed.

And tonight, she has a friend round. Who is loud. Exceptionally loud. Even louder than she is! I've got uni work to do for the morning and I've got none done because this girl keeps shouting! The pair of them shout and shout and shout! I can't deal with it! They were going to go to the cinema, and wrote a note telling me they'd not be back til midnight, so not to lock the door, and I pointed out that I saw no reason for me to be considerate when they weren't showing me any by being really noisy - why shouldn't I just do all the things that make her anxious? So she phoned her mum in tears. And now she's back to shouting and laughing loudly and I can't concentrate on anything!

Does anybody have any advice on what to do? I'm guessing that screaming and shouting at her until she sees my point of view would not be a solution...

I've apologised so often because she's so stubborn and I'm fed up of being the bigger man. If this is how it's going to be for the next 2 and a bit years, I just want her to leave now, but her contract is a year long one so I don't see how I can make her go. I just want to live alone right now - I can't bear being near other people.