What the hell do I do?

[Aseptic Skeptic]

No, you're actually not about to break.

Ask yourself, what is the alternative? Get disowned tomorrow and end up in foster care? Sure that's extreme, I know, but really, what is the alternative? How much veritable hell will you endure? Will is cost you your college degree if they disown you? Will you end up with a future working for $8/hour living in a dumpy trailer instead of having a nice job and a good home? I'm still being extreme; it's still possible to go to college while not living at home if you're determined.

Figure out what's the worst that will (not could) happen and weigh your odds. What happened with your sister? The answer could be a good way to measure what might happen to you.

But I will say this, even though you aren't going to want to hear it (I have way more experience with 16-year-olds than I ever want to admit). You think it's unbearable. You think you're going insane. You think you'll have a mental break down. You're wrong. It always amazes me what a black-and-white world teenagers live in and how everything in their lives is always extremely, well, extreme. I'm not trying to pick on you. I just want to help share some perspective that might benefit you.

Your actual brain is physically not developed. According to medical science, the human brain sin't finished growing and developing until we're in our early 20's. Not insulting you, it's just medical fact, so deal with it. This is mainly the reason why everything seems so extreme to people your age. This, and the lack of real lifetime experiences to put things into perspective.

You don't know me and you have no reason to trust me, but I don't know you and I have no reason to deceive you, so we're even. So, if you're willing, take what I've said to heart, or better yet, research it a bit and you'll see that I'm not making it up, be skeptical (I always am) and find this out for yourself.

Why?

Because all this extreme suffering you think you're enduring now is really not as extreme as you think. Learn to blow it off. Learn to deal with it without focusing on the extremity of the issue but instead on the reality of the issue and the reality of the alternative which is no-doubt much worse - and most importantly, on the reality of the benefits of sticking it out. If you can do that, and I know that you're biologically impaired for at least the next 6 years, give or take, so it's hard to do, but if you can do it, you'll find that it's not really as bad as you think it is.

I'm not trying to belittle the challenges you're facing. I'm sure they are real challenges and really hard for you to deal with. I don't doubt that a bit. All I am saying is that they're not as extreme as you think they are, and I've explained why.

Sorry if that's coming across as insulting. It's the plan truth, and it's truth I've shared with my teen-aged children who have come to grips with it and both have told me that knowing this stuff makes it much easier to deal with junk in their life.

Hopefully it will help you too.