help

[Guest]

im 11 and my parents verbally abuse me constantly for small things, and would sometimes grab a ruler, belt, or coathanger and beat me as hard as possible. this started when I was 9, and I feel like running away, or taking my own life.

[ccsmod15]

Hi there,

We are glad you reached out to NRS. It takes a lot of courage to reach out for help. It sounds like your home life is very stressful and unpredictable. You deserve to be living in a physically and emotionally safe home. It is not ok that you are being hit and beat.

It might feel very overwhelming and that your options are limited to running away or taking your own life, but there are many more options. We would like to discuss some of those with you and help you figure out a plan that works for to get into more stable and safer living arrangement. You can reach out to us directly for a chat on our website or on a phone call to our crisis hotline at (800) RUNAWAY. Both are available 24/7 and are completely confidential.

You may also be able to report any mistreatment to CPS. Child Help USA 1-800-422-4453 www.childhelp.org is an organization that helps protect minors from being harmed. They can tell you more about how CPS could respond to your situation.

If you are considering acting on a plan to take your own life, we encourage you to call us, or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at (800) 273 8255. You can also call 911, they have resources to immediately help you and get you to a safe place. You will not get in trouble for reaching out for help.

If we talk and your best option is to runaway, we can help you figure out the safest plan and help you access resources in your community that can help you. We hope to hear from you soon. Good luck.

[Guest]

Hello, I am 12 turning 13 March 13th, I want to leave home. I feel like crap here. My dad is putting my dog down even though my dad abuses my dog. We always fight, it's never going to change. How much money should I save up? Please help.

[ccsmod8]

Hello there –

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to reach out to us here at the National Runaway Safeline on our public forum. Hopefully by giving you support during your crisis, there are others that are reading this thread that can feel comfortable reaching out as well. We are always here to listen and here to help in any way that we can. It can be very frustrating not knowing what to do or what your next step might be from this point on.

Now we are mainly a support hotline here and we don’t have a guidebook or survival kit that we give youth that are leaving their homes so we don’t have exact answers to your question about how much money you should take with you. It does sound like you have been going through a very difficult time at home with your father. No one should feeling like that don’t want to be at home or even have to see their family dog put to sleep. It might be helpful to think of people in your life (either at school, neighborhood, family) that you can reach out to for support and possible talk to them about what is going on at home between you and your father.

Now we do offer a service that is basically a Conference Call where the parent/guardian, the youth, and us would be on the phone talking about what has been going on. This way there can be a mediator in between keeping things calm and productive. If you’d feel more comfortable with doing that, just know that it’s always available. It might be a great way to talk about what you are going through and where this feelings might be coming from or to maybe build on your relationship and make it better. So maybe that might be an option for you and your parents. Something constructive so that it certainly opens the lines of communication, but that services is completely up to you.

Hope that helps you and please know that you are always welcome to rest out to us again for more support.