"Spoiled little s..."

[Marcus]

My whole life I've lived pretty well. I don't have abusive parents, and I'm a middle-class kid. My parents seem alright (other than how my Dad has anger issues and tends to take his anger out on me) but my sister is a **********. After many years, I've started to realize the situation. My parents are both the oldest children in their families, but I'm younger than my sister. This means that they always seem to emphasize with her in situations, such as when she abandoned me when she was supposed to take me to school because we had an argument, but my parents punished me for skipping class despite me explaining everything. This happens almost daily, and I now notice that my parents don't treat me as well as my sister, in fact, I don't think I've seen them so much as raise their voice at her in years. I'm the butt of my family, and if I confront my parents about this, they tell me that I'm "a spoiled little ********" and that tons of kids would kill to be in my position. My life is also pretty hard right now because two years ago, I moved and left all of my friends behind. Since then, I've started high-school and haven't made any new friends, and the friends from my old city are texting me less and less. I want to run away, but I'm really short and skinny, I've never been in a fight in my life and I don't think I can stand up for myself. My best friend used to talk about wanting to run away with me, but I would turn him down because it was when we were young and I hadn't realized that I was the butt of every one of my family's jokes. I just wish I could be back with my friend and run away with him, but he's on the other side of Canada and I doubt he would even want to run away anymore. I also feel like I'm worthless. I've never been good at anything, not even sports, and I don't know how I'll ever make a living. I'm not strong or smart or anything, so I would probably starve out on my own. I just hate being ridiculed and hated by my family, and I just want out. I've considered suicide but, as you can probably guess, I'm too much of a pussy to do that too! I just hate my family, and it's not like I can call child protective services or anything because they've done nothing wrong. I just feel stuck, and that's not even mentioning the people that stare at me while I sit alone all day at school. Please help me, what should I do? (I'm 15, and can't legally leave, and soon It'll just be me and my parents alone in this house, and I don't know if I can take having all of their attention on me. They'll probably just say things like "If your sister was still here, she would've done a better job")

[ccsmod14]

Re: "Spoiled little s..."

Hi there,

Thank you for writing to us here at National Runaway Safeline (NRS). We understand it takes a lot of courage to reach out, and we appreciate you sharing a little bit about what’s going on. It sounds like you’re quite overwhelmed by things at home right now. Your safety and well-being is important, you do not have to face this alone, and there are different forms of help out there for you.

It might be helpful to have someone that you really trust to know what is going on with your and your feelings, they can always provide you with direct support in person if you needed it, (i.e close friends, family members, school counselor, etc). One option we have here at the National Runaway Safeline is a conference call. We could make sure that you are able to say how you are feeling and come up with a plan together for you to feel better at home. Sometimes it helps to have some support when talking to adults, and we are here to help you if that’s what you want to do.

It can be beneficial to think about who your support system is in a time like this, whether it be friends or other family members. As an addition resource, the website https://teenlineonline.org/ can be good if you are wishing to speak to other teens about what is going on via chat.

You might also think about doing some self-care activities that you can practice on your own whenever you’re feeling a little frustrated with your situation. Some things that you can think about doing is, setting small goals and celebrating them when they are achieved, maybe make a list of positive traits that you like about yourself, maybe establishing a hobby that makes you feel good about yourself, even try challenging your negative thoughts by asking their validity or by rethinking them in a positive manner (i.e. turn "I am a slow worker" into "I am a worker who takes time to do well at a task"). Starting a journal could also help you with these tasks. Having it all written down in front of you can put things in prospective on how many great things you do from day to day.

Having a space to vent and explore options may often bring out a solution previously not thought of. We are here as support to help you through this challenging time. We can best help by phone or chat to offer local resources as well.

Take care,
NRS

[Guest]

Struggling .

[ccsmod5]

Hey,
Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you’re having a hard time. We’re here to listen and support you in any way we can. Please feel free to give us a call if you ever need help. We encourage you to reach out by phone if you need additional resources or need help figuring out your options. Our number is 1-800-786-2929 and our lines are always open. If you have a moment, we'd appreciate your feedback of our crisis services at the following link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/we_care_what_you_think

Stay safe!