Police: Autistic Boy Lived In Filth, Ate Only Chocolate

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http://www.theindychannel.com/news/1634 ... d&psp=news

INDIANAPOLIS -- An autistic boy found living in filthy conditions had only been fed chocolate and had never been to school, police said.

Sandra Helmick, 48, was arrested Tuesday at a home in the 1100 block of Sharon Avenue in which she and her 8-year-old son were staying, 6News' Ericka Flye reported. (Click on the above link to view the rest of the story, pictures, and a video.)



This is just disgusting. How could people do this? And how could people live like that?

People live any way they can.

Merle

_________________________________________
"There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"
Shakespeare

I doubt the abuse was intentional. The adults in this story walked upright, wore clothing, and possessed opposable thumbs, but I doubt they had the brainpower to figure out what was wrong. The submutants what done kept that boy are few notches below "white trash."

Quite a lot of people live on their own in conditions like that. There was a young man, ( and this is just one example out of many, and not the worst either), living in a bedsit room below mine for a year who lived like that, whose room I cleared when he left because I got on really well with the live-in landlord and his girlfriend, because I love a massive glorious clear out, and also because I understood the mess. I'd been close to it/in it myself at previous stages in my life.

There was rubbish allowed to collect interestingly and organically in all corners, and cigarette ash and food/drink stains everywhere, and he had obviously lived on biscuits and other packet cold-foods ( as I did at several points in my life, in one case because I was too anxious/awkward/AS to go and use the shared kitchen) because I had only seen him in the communal kitchen when he was making magic mushroom tea and needed a pan and the cooker.

He was on his computer all the time, and put music on loud which drove me spare, so I loathed him, ...and remembered manic phases when I had done that too.

There were disgusting pieces of clothing screwed up and abandoned . I remembered when I had used a laundrette only once in over a year, ( when I lived in london with a job, and ate takeouts all the time and maggots grew on the pile of rubbish on the kitchen table), and survived because I had a bank overdraft and just kept buying clean clothes.

And there was lots of mature mould growth, rot, and gunge, and stickiness.

I cleaned up the awful terrible mess because I recognised it, and because I was feeling a lot better, calmer/stable/clearer headed/grounded as a result of diet and only a peaceful part-time job to handle.

I think it is quite possible that the mother in the above case is somewere on the spectrum herself, and was unable to handle the strain of being a single parent. I find parenthood difficult even with the fairly responsible reasonably-together father there to help.

That's how people can live like that. Not being able to cope. Being AS themselves.

Last edited by ouinon on 22 May 2008, 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

(I don't want to go into psychologics about that parent/child relationship right now, which maybe some overprotective mother, not fully healthy herself or whatever)

Just some detail:

If you watch that video carefully, you'll notice, that the camera guy took not a single picture showing the whole room. It's just totals of rather small trash heaps and a lot of stuff arranged in a chaotic way. Not even very dirty. One shot looked to me as showing the inside(!) of a trash can, so they could get at least a single dirty dish. Otherwise I've seen much worse. (Even lived worse myself sometimes)

That's reassuring.

Maybe next time they'll find true squalor.

I had only read the article until you said that, but after watching I agree with you, and am amazed that this level of mess is considered to be scandalous, "criminal", squalor. Yes, it's not very pretty, nice, or tidy, but it looks much better than many I've seen in real life, and on TV "reality shows" where a couple of dirtbusters go into filthy homes to clean them up.

For instance the bathroom was actually clean. ( or did I miss something there? I turned the sound off so as not to hear nauseous media commentary about the shock horror etc).

I'm now thinking that, apart from the boy's dairy, chocolate, and sugar addictions, probably food-allergy/intolerance-based, the main accusation against the mother is that she homeschooled her son and didn't like doctors. This sounds so uncannily like me that I am confirmed in my fear of authority poking its nose in into the lives of people who don't do things the same way as everybody else.

What is the basis for their accusation of abuse/neglect against the mother?

Perhaps she has been on a forum somewhere writing desperately about how the authorities are taking her son away from her, and putting her in prison, because she homeschools and didn't manage to control her son's dairy and chocolate addiction because his meltdowns if he didn't get them were so terrifying/overwhelming.

Last edited by ouinon on 21 May 2008, 11:26 am, edited 6 times in total.

That takes some cojones, siding against the community on this one. It's ballsy and utterly stupid.

Is that addressed at me?

I don't understand in what way I am supposed to be "siding against the community" . Please explain.

it sounds like the lady was very ignorant but needed outside specialist support.
whether she was offered it and refused it though....

maybe this is why there should be official autism registers in all countries,so that it makes it harder for autistics to be neglected or abused,and harder for the government to ignore.


its not so uncommon for autistics to be neglected in this way,am used to live with a profoundly LFA/severely challenging/ profoundly deaf/OCD lady in her forties,am found out she had not done one day of school in her life,her mum had kept her locked in her bedroom most of the time because she did not know what to do with her,Angela is one of the most talented autie artists am know but neither her family or staff encouraged her ability,they treated her like she was useless and worthless,and apparently,am the only person she has ever tried to be friends with and not attacked,would expect that given the way she's been treated by them.

Blindly championing the boy's guardians and the state of their lives instead of experiencing moral outrage ... that is siding against the community. And also justifying the whole thing, apologizing for it.

Letting Him Eat Chocolate topic

What kind of state must Sandra Helmick's mind be in for her to let her son live like that? And what about that Paul Roberts?

That's my point; her mind may well be in an AS state. And what's pissing me off now is that some people seem to be forgetting the existence, ( that we otherwise talk so routinely about on wp), of many undiagnosed , unrecognised, AS adults, parents at that, living in society with no help, no idea why everything is so difficult, struggling with basic aspects of living, like keeping clean and eating properly.

I am amazed that all the indignation about the refusal of so many to admit the existence of undiagnosed adults with AS disappears when a case media-packaged for easy swallowing is presented to them.

I am not "apologising", "championing", or excusing. But I think the question in the OP " What kind of people live like this?" really needed the reply, "some autistic people do". AS runs in families. Or has the preference for/widespread belief in a genetic basis for AS ( rather than environmental) also disappeared out the window?

PS: Also want to point out that if the toilets didn't work, ( now looked at the separate photos with captions, and that explains why bathroom was clean), then the stink outside was probably because they went to the loo outside some of the time when not able to use the sink.

Last edited by ouinon on 21 May 2008, 11:59 am, edited 3 times in total.

I don't think that questioning the details of a news video is actually "championing" the situation. I simply can't make out any terrible "state of lives", only because the journalist wants me make to believe that. (And he is mainly interested to sell his footage).

I can only see a child that's taken away from his mother (maybe ill herself). Arresting her (what for? littering?) instead of giving help to them.

I just see too many people being interested to proof a case. The police to legitimate this arrest, the journalists to fill a few news minutes and get paid...

Sorry, but I don't buy everything, just because it's in the web/tv/papers. I want to know the truth and if there is any need, then there should be somebody to help child and mother. But most likely a prison is no way.

What's about that child now? Do you think he feels better without the only person he was attached to?
I think a social worker would have been enough, even after the police had to break into the building.

Last edited by PilotPirx on 21 May 2008, 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm surprised. This story didn't try association with Christianity OR homeschooling. It's a miracle.

So autism is the excuse? Living like sub-human animals is OK if they are autistic? It's never okay. Not for anyone, to have a child live like this and do jack-sh*t for him. You oughtta be ashamed of yourself for apologizing this case. You are challenging the veracity of it because you can't bear to face the truth.