Autism, Pica & Misconceptions: How it Affects Daily Life

Ruth Kang
Mar 12, 2016
3 min read

March 8, 2016

Ruth Kang

Ovington, Sammi. Facebook, 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 08 Mar. 2016.

Do not judge anything you do not understand. Before meeting an individual, you have no idea what they have been through, what health conditions they may have, and what struggles and hardships they are going through at the moment. However, we still make assumptions or judge each other a little by an individual’s actions, appearance, or how they carry themselves. For instance, someone with pica (“a disorder where an individual [she] feels the uncontrollable need to eat non-edible things”) may receive negative judgement from the crowd because of unusual actions such as eating dirt or chewing on a piece of sponge.

Whether it be twirling on your hair when you are nervous, or biting on your nails when things are taking slow to load on the laptop, most of us have a habit or a routine that we follow, that others may find as peculiar because they do not know the reasoning behind one’s actions. Recently, in the news article Mum Of Girl With Autism Writes Open Letter To Strangers Who Called Her 'Irresponsible’ written by Amy Packham, a three year old girl named Skye, and her mother Sammi has received harsh and judgmental comments from the crowd when they decided that they wanted to go out shopping. Skye is not just an ordinary young girl; she is diagnosed with pica, autism, and hypermobility syndrome, in which includes pain in the fingers, knees, and elbows. Nevertheless, Skye’s mother was criticized by a lady in Paperchase telling her that her daughter Skye was being “naughty and [I’m] irresponsible” because Skye has eaten the barcode of an item before it was paid for. In addition, Skye’s mother was also looked down upon not only by the lady, but also by the people on the streets. The people stared at Skye and her mother, and they also whispered into each other’s ears talking about how strange they were. Disregarding that, Skye’s mother, Sammi, decides to write an open letter to the strangers who called her “irresponsible.” She starts out her letter by stating, “To the lady in Paperchase telling me Skye was naughty, I'm irresponsible and I shouldn't give her things before I've paid for them, thanks for your input. Pica is a disorder where she feels the uncontrollable need to eat non-edible things. Skye's thing is paper. I'm sorry she ate the barcode before we paid but she isn't naughty and I am not irresponsible.” After posting her open letter on Facebook, she has received a ton of attention, followed by showering of likes, comments, shares. It even lead to other individuals posting similar situations to the one the irritated mother had to face. Overall, I believe that Skye's mother, Sammi, has made a great decision of writing an open letter to the clueless strangers. Although the letter may have come across as rude to most-- personally, I think that the letter was not that brutal or rude compared to how some strangers treated Sammi and her daughter. I believe that she was simply backing herself up to the judgmental crowd that believed that she was just rude and irresponsible. I think that if more people knew about pica (eating disorder), majority of people would not be so arrogant and clueless about some subjects. In order to fix this issue, pica disorder should be included in the learning curriculum in health class, just like almost every other eating disorder is. From my experience, I have heard of other eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia a countless number of times during health, but I have never learned about pica until I was diagnosed with it myself last year, with the strange desire of craving mint. What do you think? Was the open letter Sammi wrote too harsh? Do you think it would be more beneficial if people actually knew and learned about what pica is?

Packham, Amy. "Mum Of Girl With Autism Writes Open Letter To Strangers Who Called Her

'Irresponsible'" Huffpost Parents UK. The Huffington Post UK, 04 Mar. 2016. Web. 08

Mar. 2016.