‘I gave up on my life’: She didn’t leave home for a year, played games all day

SINGAPORE - For nearly a year in 2019, Kelly did not leave her room, except to use the toilet. She slept in the day and woke up just to play computer games, often till the wee hours of the morning.Mental health case worker Mandy Yang recalled how Kelly’s hair fell to her hips when she first saw her, because she had not gone for a haircut for so long.

Kelly is among more than 30 reclusive youth who have received help from charity Impart since 2021. Around half of them have managed to come out of reclusion. Some youth may need much more than six months. “In these cases, we just try to be as innovative or creative in understanding them, relating to them in different ways,” said Mr Tay. To communicate with a non-verbal youth who did not leave home for three years, his Impart case worker messaged him through online platform Discord while sitting next to him.

Similar incidents happened in secondary school, even after she moved to another school for a fresh start. “It got me thinking, is it a ‘me’ problem?” she said.She started to dread going out in public, especially seeing students in school uniforms and being on the train. “Even when people are just talking among themselves, I feel like they’re talking about me.”Her mother’s efforts to make her go back did not help. “She pressured me more. She kept telling me to go to school.

It was by coincidence that she realised she and Kelly shared a common interest in computer games, which helped to break the ice. “I had no motivation, and I didn’t know what I wanted in life. I felt mostly numb,” said Joel, who is now 18. The older of two boys lives with his grandmother and mother, who works as a sales manager. His parents live separately.For Joel, it was Impart’s boxing programme for troubled young people, a collaboration with boxing gym Spartans Boxing Club, that got him out of the house.

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