Family opens up about 12-year-old who hung himself after COVID-19 lockdowns left him ‘sad and lonely’



The family of a 12-year-old boy from Texas who hung himself last spring is speaking out about the tragedy in hopes of raising awareness about youth suicide amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hayden Hunstable, of Aledo, Texas, took his own life last April after feeling isolated and lonely due to the nationwide lockdowns spurred on by the pandemic, the boy's father, Brad, 42, recently told Metro UK. He was discovered in his bedroom by his 8-year-old sister.

"I had no idea he was struggling or depressed, he was such a happy kid and loved his friends and family," his dad told the news outlet. "But Covid is a perfect storm for suicide and depression. I think everything just got on top of him, he felt overwhelmed and he made a tragic decision."

Brad Hunstable recalled that he was shocked and horrified, especially since there were no warning signs and he didn't have any clue that his son was depressed.

"On April 17 our water went out at the house and my dad came over, Hayden helped us fix it. It was a beautiful sunny day and I gave him a hug and a kiss on the head. Then when my dad left there was just me, Kinlee and Hayden at home. There was only a 30 minute window," he recalled. "Hayden had gone upstairs."

"Then my daughter ran downstairs and said Hayden has hung himself. I ran up there, pulled him down and tried to save him. I performed CPR but I couldn't save him. He was gone. I saw something horrific that day and I don't wish it upon anybody. I still get nightmares about it," he said.

Hunstable said that his son was active in the community and loved going to school and seeing his friends. But he said the isolation from classmates coupled with his dislike for virtual learning could have resulted in Hayden feeling depressed.

"He loved football and he loved being around people, he was very social," the father told Metro. "He was a little guy but he had the heart of a lion. He was beloved by his friends and family."

Hayden may have been triggered into making a "tragic impulse decision" after he broke a second monitor at home, his father added. For Christmas 2019, Hayden's parents got him a monitor to play video games on, but he had broken it out of frustration.

"We told him he would not get another one, but then lockdown hit and I told him he would have to work to get a new one," Hunstable said. "He did some chores around the house and we got him a cheaper one in April because it was his birthday on April 21st and he wanted to play with his friends."

When police were investigating his death, they reportedly discovered that he had broken the new monitor, as well.

"I don't know if he was scared about getting into trouble or anxious about not being able to speak to his friends and ruining his birthday," Hunstable said. "He either did it in impulsive anger or he got himself in a situation he couldn't get out of."

Now, Hayden's family is determined to use his death to bring positive change. They founded "Hayden's Corner," a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about youth suicide and produced a video, "Almost Thirteen," which shares Hayden's story.

Almost Thirteen PSA youtu.be

"I am on a mission to solve youth suicide. Parents need to have conversations with their kids about their feelings," Hunstable told Metro. "We need to talk to kids about suicide and talk to kids about how to deal with depression. Kids get depressed and they need to be taught how to deal with their problems."

Since the start of the pandemic, several have voiced concerns over the unintended consequences of shelter-in-place orders and school closures, noting that while lockdown restrictions may protect people from the coronavirus, the forced isolation may also take a toll an mental health.

In May, California doctors reported that they had seen more deaths from suicide that from the virus. Then in June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control discovered that more than one quarter of young adults in the country contemplated taking their own life. Just last month, Las Vegas schools decided to reopen as "quickly as possible" after a rash of student suicides rocked the school district.

Depression has more than tripled since the COVID-19 pandemic



The COVID-19 pandemic has not only taken a toll on the physical well-being of many Americans, but also the mental health, according to a new study. During the coronavirus pandemic, the rate of depression in U.S. adults has more than tripled, a study published in JAMA Network Open found.

There was psychological trauma caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns, social isolation, employment worries, financial concerns, and an unpredictable future. A recent study, led by researchers from Boston University, set out to discover the emotional damage that people encountered during the coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers examined data from a survey of 1,441 U.S. adults conducted from March 31 to April 13. By mid-April, there were over 600,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States, and there were nearly 28,000 coronavirus deaths. Stay-at-home orders were issued in most states at the time, and a record 20.5 million jobs were lost in April.

A pre-pandemic poll of 5,065 respondents in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, conducted from 2017 to 2018, found that 8.5% of Americans showed depression symptoms. During the coronavirus pandemic, that figure skyrocketed to 27.8% of people who said they were experiencing depression symptoms.

Both surveys are based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, "the most commonly used self-administered depression screening tool," according to The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Women were most likely to have depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, at 33.3%, compared to 21.9% of men. Individuals who were widowed, divorced, or separated had 2.1-fold increased odds of depression symptoms compared to those who were married.

People with a household income of $19,999 or less had 2.4-fold increased odds of depression symptoms. Individuals with household savings less than $5,000 had 1.5-fold increased odds of depression symptoms, according to the paper.

"In 2020, 38.8% of U.S. adults ages 18 to 39 had at least one symptom of depression, up from 9% in the earlier years," according to the Los Angeles Times. "That increase was mirrored among Americans in their 40s and 50s (jumping from 8.5% to 26.8%) and those 60 and above (rising from 7.9% to 14.9%)."

Signs of depression include feeling down or hopeless, loss of interest in things that generally bring joy, lethargy, lack of concentration, or thinking about self-harm, according to Time.

"As an event that can cause physical, emotional, and psychological harm, the COVID-19 pandemic can itself be considered a traumatic event," the authors wrote. "In addition, the policies created to prevent its spread introduced new life stressors and disrupted daily living for most people in the U.S.

"We imagine that as the virus spreads and more cases of COVID-19 are confirmed, so too may mental illness increase among those with COVID-19 and those around them," the authors stated. "This burden is being borne by economically and socially marginalized groups, suggesting that individuals with low income and with fewer resources may benefit from particular policy attention in coming months."

"Post–COVID-19 plans should account for the probable increase in mental illness to come, particularly among at-risk populations," the authors concluded.

"Depression in the general population after prior large scale traumatic events has been observed to, at most, double," said senior study author Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean and Robert A. Knox professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Galea cited the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Ebola outbreak, and civil unrest in Hong Kong.

"These findings serve to alert our attention to yet another impending public health crisis as a result of this pandemic — the increase in cases of major depression," Dr. Ruth Shim, an expert on cultural psychology at UC Davis, wrote in the commentary attached to the study.