Toxic grandmother

[Guest]

Hello I’m 17 years old soon to be 18 in September. I have lived with my grandma for 6-7 years now and I’m starting to have mental and emotional issues due to her toxicity. She calls me weak for crying when I can’t help from being sensitive. She criticizes me on things I do and scolds me a lot. She doesn’t care for my mental health only school grades. I tried to reach out to other family but nothing works. I’ve became more depressed through out the years and I can’t take it anymore. It’s too much to handle. I’m not allowed to be with friends or have a relationship which I am in right now and I can’t be happy in it for only being with family and at home and not allowed to talk to them without my grandmother knowing. How am I supposed to help myself? She won’t let me get a job or be independent. I’m on the urge of just going insane. I really need help.

[ccsmod5]

Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out to us, it sounds like things have been pretty stressful at home for some time now. You mentioned experiencing emotional abuse which may be reportable against your grandmother. Please keep in mind you by no means deserve any type of abuse, emotional or otherwise. Unfortunately, emotional abuse is often harder to provide evidence for compared to physical abuse which is often what CPS relies on when conducting an abuse investigation. That said, we can’t be 100% sure what the outcome will be if your local CPS decides to open a case based on what you share. Sometimes CPS decides to remove minors from the home and other times they offer services such as family counseling or mediation instead. The only way to know the outcome might be to reach out to them directly and if you’re ready to do that we are here to help you through that process. Reaching out to Child Help USA at 1-800-422-4453 or www.childhelp.org may help to get a better understanding of what may happen before and after a report is made.
If you need anyone to talk to, if this is or isn’t the route you want to take, give us a call or chat with us so we can try to help you as best we can. We can explore options with you.
We hope this helps. Please reach out if we can offer any further support.
Be safe,
NRS