Roanoke, Virginia — As a 10-year-old, Autumn Bushman loved to perform. The fourth-grade cheerleader from Salem, Virginia, was a bundle of energy.
“She really turned my living room into a dance floor,” her mother, Summer Bushman, told CBS News. “She never sat still…She really did care about others more than she cared about herself.”
But for the past couple of years, Summer says Autumn was bullied in school over her braces. The abuse also continued after school on her smartphone.
On March 21, at the age of 10, Autumn died by suicide at night in her bedroom. Records show she was looking at her phone’s screen just before it happened, Summer said.
Summer told CBS News her daughter would take her phone to bed at night.
“I had questioned that a couple of times, and she fought back and said, ‘Mom, I need my alarm,'” Summer said. “And every single morning when I’d wake her up, she had her alarm going off.”
A new study from researchers at Virginia Tech shows nighttime screen use and easy access to over-the-counter medicines are linked to teen suicide attempts.
The study examined data of children ages 12 to 17 who had been admitted to a hospital after attempting suicide by intentionally overdosing. It found that about two-thirds of those overdosed after 8 p.m., and approximately three out of four were on screens right before.
“It is very distracting and disturbs your sleep,” Dr. Abhishek Reddy, a clinical psychiatrist and professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine who conducted the research, said of screen use before bed.
Reddy added that it is “pretty dangerous” for bullied children to take their phones to bed at night “because during the daytime, you can talk to people, you can talk to school counselors, you can talk to your family members, friends. But at nighttime, all that access is cut off.”
He recommends keeping phones out of bedrooms, practicing good sleep hygiene, and reducing access to all medications.
“I come in here and I think, you know, it’s been six months since she’s been gone, it’s been seven months since she’s been gone. And then I think to myself, I have to go the rest of my life without seeing her again,” Summer said.
Summer wishes she had never given Autumn a smartphone so young, let alone allowed her to use it at night.
“She deserved to live life, and I will never see her go to a homecoming or prom,” Summer said. “I’ll never see her, you know, get married, or in a wedding dress. And that’s really difficult.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here.
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