NORFOLK, Va. – A Norfolk teen who’d been missing for three weeks drove the rest of the way home with his mother Monday afternoon.
Keith Anderson, 18, and his mother Mesha Anderson left from Charlotte, N.C. several hours after Mesha picked him up at the airport there.
Earlier that day Sunday, Mesha said she got a call from Keith who said for the last week and a half, he’d been staying at a homeless shelter all the way in Houston, TX.
“He was crying hysterically,” said Mesha. “I was just happy to hear that he was okay and alive.”
Keith took a flight from Houston to Charlotte where he reunited with his mother. Along the drive back home, the pair stopped to take a picture. Keith was smiling – a smile his mom told News 3 was missing when she last saw him on Jan. 29, right before she dropped him off at NSU.
“The running joke in the family is when we see Keith, he's showing all 85 of his teeth, because he's always smiling,” Mesha said. “Looking back to that day, he was not smiling, but he's a teenager and I didn't think nothing of it. They have their ups and downs. But looking back on it, he wasn't his usual self.”
News 3 reporter Antoinette DelBel met the Norfolk mother of three two weeks after Keith went missing. Mesha said told me it’s not like him to disappear.
Today, she said she still has many questions.
“Keith is really exhausted,” she said. “He's emotionally drained. It's a lot going on. So, I don't want to push him and scare him away by bombarding him with 5,000 questions.”
Showing your child empathy in these types of situations is the best thing to do, according to Dr. Oshan Gadsden, an associate professor and psychology department chair at Hampton University.
“You certainly don't want to go to your child, or your adult child, condemning them, being judgmental,” Gadsden said. “I often tell patients and folks that you want to talk to each other, whether your children or your spouse, in a tone of curiosity.”
Some signs a person might be struggling mentally include lack of energy, irritability or feeling sad.
Even though Keith is 18 and can make his own decisions Dr. Gadsden said everyone can use a little help sometimes, especially men who are typically perceived to be strong.
“In general, for men and males, we’ve been socialized to provide; we’ve been socialized to be strong; and we’ve been socialized that there are certain emotions or ways of being that are permitted and often times being vulnerable isn’t one of them.”
Mesha believes Keith has been depressed and is ready to see a therapist as soon as they get home.
“We just can't wait to get back and start putting our lives back together,” Mesha said. “His mental state is first and foremost.”
