“Anne Frank House restored the middle-class life I’d lost to mental illness"

If you'd met Victoria Lowell (not her real name) in her mid-30s while she was working at a major international organization, she would have struck you as typical of the white-collar worker that is drawn to work in the Greater Washington, DC region. Intelligent, articulate and committed to the uplift of peoples in less-advantaged countries, there was nothing about Victoria to suggest to the casual observer that she suffered from a mental disorder.

However, a trained observer who knew about Victoria's personal life would have noted things that escaped casual notice: she went through long periods during which she worked "24/7" with seemingly no need for sleep, and displayed other traits that a psychiatrist would recognize as symptomatic of bipolar disorder.

But it was not until many years later, after her physical health had badly deteriorated and bouts of crippling depression had cost Victoria her career and landed her in a cycle of joblessness, poverty and homelessness that she finally received the professional help she needed and a proper diagnosis.

The help came too late to spare Victoria years of a "living nightmare" as she struggled to "keep up appearances" and became more and more isolated from society while blaming herself for being a failure.

"I was intelligent enough to be stupid about my mental health," she explained. "I'd always been self-reliant. I kept thinking I could solve on my own whatever was wrong with me. It took years of efforts by some very dedicated workers in the homeless-shelter system and a great psychiatrist to help me overcome denial."

Victoria added, "But I can't tell you, offhand, how many homeless shelters I had to endure before I could face reality. It was really only when I was diagnosed with a chronic physical illness in addition to the mental diagnosis that I fully accepted I'd need ongoing assistance, which included medication for the mental disorder."

Then came the struggle, she said, to regain her self-esteem and realize her life hadn't been for nothing.

By 2006 Victoria's physical illness and mental health had stabilized to the point where she could be moved into a group home for the mentally ill.

"The home was a good experience," she recalled. "But I yearned for an apartment of my own, for some semblance of a life I'd had before everything fell apart."

Her dream came true in 2007 when an apartment became available for rent to Anne Frank House.

"When I was given the keys to the apartment, which Anne Frank House members had beautifully furnished, it was one of the happiest moments in my life and the first real happiness I'd experienced in more than 20 years," she said.

“Anne Frank House restored the middle-class life I’d lost to mental illness," she added. “That is profoundly important for me. And I now face the future with a sense of security.”

Victoria also sees Anne Frank House as serving a special purpose. “It helps people who fall through the cracks of the institutional system,” she says. “Some formerly homeless people don’t do well in a group living situation. For us, an apartment of our own, with the support system Anne Frank House offers, gives us the life we want to lead.”