“Hi. I’m 16 and I really don’t know if I am in an abusive relationship or not with my mother.
When ever I come home, my first thought is always “Is my mother home?” And it has come to my attention, that this is probably not normal. 
I often find myself in a state of constant defense around her, and in fact, don’t want to be around her at all.
Even though I tend to be her therapist at times, the only one she opens up to about all of her own issues and problems, whenever I try to share mine, she says I complain too much, or that I am selfish. A brat. Ungrateful. All of the above.
At the end of the day, it seems as though I am the scapegoat to all of her frustrations, and when I do something wrong, she yells at me as if I have ruined her world […] I feel very suffocated and controlled. It’s as if everything that I do is not enough for her, and it also seems that nothing is good enough for me. She disapproves of my good friends, their parents, and belittles others in front of me. I always hope that I can escape my house before she ridicules how I look.
We also seem to get into arguments day by day; but the screaming, frustrated me, is not the real me. Outside of my home, I am considered a kind, caring individual, but when I am home, I am no longer me…” –Posted on the crisis Forum 8/1/18

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