Esports Help and Inspire a Teen with Mental Illness | Winchester Star

“It became too much on him,” his mother, Kelly Dodson, said during an interview Monday at Shenandoah University‘s Esports Arena in Winchester. Keygan has already endured a great deal in his young life, including the death of a young sibling and seeing his mother sent to prison on charges stemming from her former drug addiction.

In March, Keygan swallowed two handfuls of Tylenol. He survived the suicide attempt, but his kidneys sustained permanent damage. In April, Keygan smoked some weed that had been laced with DMT, a potent drug that causes hallucinations. Since Keygan already suffered from schizoaffective disorder, the DMT’s effect was so powerful that he became catatonic and was hospitalized at a psychiatric facility in Maryland.

She also wasn’t aware that he was self-medicating with marijuana. “His was the most serious case [involving a DMT-related mental breakdown] in that unit in the last 20 years,” Dodson said.

She didn’t know, though, that Keygan was suffering from something called schizoaffective disorder, which can trigger hallucinations, mania, depression, delusions and disorganized thought processes. Dodson, who has been out of prison for nearly a decade, having regained her sobriety while behind bars in 2008, was focused on helping her son.

“Keygan at that point thought he was communicating with his sister that was deceased,” Dodson said. “They told me at one point if he didn’t start recovering, they were going to send him to long-term care.” Keygan slowly emerged from his catatonic state about three weeks after being admitted, but there were few reasons for optimism.

“He’s come a long way but he has not stabilized yet,” Dodson said. The 17-year-old now suffers from significant short-term memory loss, so his mom works with him every day to make sure his medications are working and his surroundings don’t become overwhelming. Dodson even got her son a support dog, Alexis, who has become Keygan’s constant companion and is learning to recognize when the teen becomes confused, agitated or overwhelmed. Dodson refused to believe the doctors and nurses who doubted her son’s chances of ever having a normal life. Thanks in no small part to her dogged persistence, Keygan was healthy enough in June to return home to Winchester.

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