"I hated having visitors in my house because I didn’t want people too close to me or because I felt that I am not clean. In fact if I knew that someone was coming round, I would always bleach all the floors beforehand, which was a bit over the top. But the other day a friend texted to say she’s like to come round that afternoon and my house was messy, as usual, not least because I’d dedicated that afternoon to doing the week’s housework. And yet somehow I was able to override the urge to deflect her and I had this friend round my house without having to do any bleaching or too much tidying beforehand and I felt completely okay about it. I really felt that I’d achieved something. I think it can generally be summarised as being now more flexible, less neurotic. Also, I have had a lot of episodes of feeling very positive since our last session. And not avoiding things, like paying my credit card on time (rather than not opening the statements) and answering my supervisor’s emails on the day he writes them, rather than just hiding."