In Her Own Words – “Pathway Homes has really helped me to be able to have more confidence in myself and be able to focus more on getting things done around the house and overcoming some of my fears.” by Michele Bryant
Hi, my name is Michele Bryant. I suffer from severe depression and anxiety. Two and a half years ago, I wanted to take my own life because of some things that had been going on in my life. My mom passed away earlier in the year, and then I lost my Social Security Disability benefits. My brother and my dad also were not being nice to me, and I found out that they had been keeping all kinds of secrets from me. So, obviously I wasn’t getting along with them.
I was inpatient for 2 weeks and then was in outpatient treatment for another 6 weeks. After that, I started more intense therapy through Loudoun County Mental Health. My case manager at the time referred me to Pathway Homes, and I started working with them in January.
I started working with Felicia at the time. She helped me so much by getting me to focus on going through the process of completing my appeal to Social Security and making a case for why I should be reinstated. She was so patient with me through every single session and gave me reassurance that things indeed would get better. We spent many hours working together. If it hadn’t been for Felicia with Pathway Homes, I don’t think I could have done it. She encouraged me to do different things to help with my anxiety and depression.
One of the things I started doing was to take a Beginning Acrylic Painting class at the senior center. During the summer 2 years ago, she encouraged me to submit some of my paintings in the Summer of the Arts program. She was going to take me to the reception at the time, but unfortunately, I had a kidney stone that started an infection, and I ended up being septic. I was too sick to go at that time, but I was so grateful for the experience and the success of selling some of my paintings.
Sadly, around Christmas of 2023, Felicia suddenly passed away. So, I eventually started with a new person from Pathway Homes, which was supposed to be a temporary fill in. Although it was extremely difficult for me to get over Felicia’s death, I was able to work with a new person to further develop my skills and abilities to be better able to function and get things done around my house and teach me some independence. I now have a new permanent person working with me to continue to develop skills in being independent and managing my anxiety.
Pathway Homes has really helped me to be able to have more confidence in myself and be able to focus more on getting things done around the house and overcoming some of my fears.
I have really enjoyed learning to paint. I definitely wouldn’t consider myself to be a pro or even a great artist. But painting has helped me to create an outlet that has helped me regain confidence and hope to continue to improve my painting skills. My favorite things to paint are sunsets and flowers. I also get inspiration from finding pretty pictures of things and then trying to paint them.
