I need some guidance.

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm a 16 year old boy and my home life has been very troubling for the past 3 years. Firstly I suffer from anxiety and depression, as well as some anger issues. My school situation also isn't very good and I've been wanting to get help for years now. My parents were very reluctant to get me any help as they don't believe in mental health and they think therapists are for psychos & nuts. When my dad did take me to a therapist however, after months of convincing, the therapist he made me go to was very old and didn't seem to understand my situation. After I wanted to see a different therapist my dad called me an ungrateful piece of crap, miserable, and just said I don't deserve to feel the way I do. I would be fine if this was a one time thing but this kind of thing happens a lot in my family. I have 4 brothers and my dad is very controlling and EXTREMELY authoritative so there's always yelling and stuff going on in the house. He is constantly trying to prove how much of a man he is and how he is a "man of honor", he's basically a real life Tony Soprano if you watched that. My mom is also bipolar and she doesn't really make the situation better, just fights with my dad. They agreed to a divorce but they never went through with it and they're just prolonging the situation. Anyway, after a while I get easily overwhelmed by all of this: constant fighting, school, just a lot of stress. However I don't even have the right to be angry in my house, my parents always minimize their problems and the situation and whenever I'm angry they just talk down to me constantly and call me a bunch of vulgarities. They think I have no right to feel angry or "tell them how to do things" and they just downplay me all day. Every now and then there will be a time where I threaten to call CPS or contemplate running away but I never go through with it because I'm scared of what will happen. I'm simply just not compatible with my parents and the people in my house, we are all the opposite. I have nothing too bad against them, I just can't deal with them or their abuse anymore. I can't deal with the constant name calling and threats and the constant minimizing of my problems and day to day struggles and the lack of empathy from them. I don't even think these people know what empathy means. It is exhausting and I am contemplating on what to do. Should I run away? Should I stick it for two more years and risk my mental well being? I don't know, what do you think I should do? I

[ccsmod6]

Hi,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reach out to us tonight. it sounds like you're going through some really difficult things right now and are under a lot of stress. We're sorry to hear about everything you're going through, from the anxiety and depression, to your parents not taking your mental health seriously, to you not feeling like you fit in in your household. It's definitely not okay for any of this to be happening to you. You deserve to be taken seriously and all of your feelings are valid. We understand how living in a household where there's a lot of tension and underlying issues can be pretty frustrating and even exhausting.

So first things first, your mental health is always most important. If you're ever feeling particularly depressed you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. They even have a chat resource at their website suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You can also considering talking to a crisis counselor via crisistextline.org.

Running away at 16 can be kind of tricky. For the most part youth are not allowed to leave home until they are 18, in some states it can even be 19 or 21 until youth are legally adults. Running away is not illegal, but if you were to leave home without your parents permission they could go to your local police department and file a runaway report for you. You would not be arrested for running away and it would not go on your record, but the police would have to take you back home if they found you.

If you need any more resources or just want to talk more about what you're going through please don't hesitate to reach out to us again. We wish you the best of luck with everything!