17 Forever

[Unregistered]

Hello. I am curious about what I should do about my living situation. I will be honest, my parents provide the basic needs however there is an issue. My mother constantly verbally abuses me and the rest of my family. She is always arguing with my father and at one point psychically abused him. I desperately want and need to move out. But I have nowhere to go. I am not happy whatsoever in this house. I have attempted suicide before, have developed depression and anxiety, and have problems with self harm. My therapist tells me I should move onto campus since I'm going to college soon. I'm not quite sure how that would work, my other plan would be to live with a friend as she has a spare room in her house. What should I do? I just live my life thinking about how bad I need to leave this place. I feel like I'm not developing as a normal person with all this negativity on behalf of my parents.... Please help!!!

[ccsmod8]

RE: 17 forever

Hello there –

Thank you for reaching out to us here at the National Runaway Safeline. From your post, it seems that you are going through a very hard time right now living at home and seem to be very overwhelmed with everything that has been going on. Especially if you’re thinking about leaving your house. You definitely don’t have to be treated that way. Especially when you’re at home; a place that is supposed to be a safe and loving place for you. You always have the right to report any abuse to your local police department or child protective service in your state. If you don’t feel comfortable with filing a report against your mother, you can always call us anytime you want. There is always someone here to help you.

You asked some pretty great questions about what you can legally do and what you cannot do at your age. Unfortunately, here at the NRS we cannot tell you in definite terms what would happen if you were to leave home without permission because we are not legal experts. Laws on that specific subject vary from state to state, so our advice would be call your local non-emergency police number to get more information on that. But since you are below the legal age of majority (18 in most states), what generally happens; your parents or legal guardian would be able to make a runaway report in the event that you do run away. Since it’s only considered a statues offense the only thing that would happen is that the police will pick you up and bring you back home. If your parents do make a runaway report and you stay with someone else, your parents can press charges on that family for harboring a runaway when they are not giving accurate information on your whereabouts. So that might be something to keep in mind as well.

If you give us a call on our 24/7 hotline at 1-800-RUNAWAY (786-2929) we could help you find resources in your area and could potentially help you brainstorm a solution to the issues you are having. We also have an online chat service available every night from 4:30-11:30PM CST that is available through our website (www.1800runaway.org). If you contact us and give us more information about your location and situation we would be more than happy to help you find resources.

Hope to hear from you soon!

[Unregistered]

389

Thank you very much for your help. But I still have questions.

[ccsmod1]

Re: 389

Thanks for getting back to us. We are here to listen and support you in any way that we can. It sounds like you still have some questions. We are here to talk if you want. Feel free to call us directly so we can discuss all your questions and come up with options, resources, and a plan for you. We are here 24/7 and all of our services are confidential. We are looking forward to your call, and wish you the best of luck!