The Life Of A Runaway Teen
CHICAGO-- Most teens who run away from their homes had lack of parent communication, couldn’t handle their personal situations or had mistreatment from parents or other adults.
According to Evolve Treatment, in the article of ‘When Teens Run Away But Always Comes Back: Should Parents Be Worried’, “Statistics shows that between 1.6 and 2.8 million teens run away each year. This means just under 9% of teens run away each year”.
15-year-old Trinity Alford has had the experience of running away. She had many problems at home at a young age that caused her to run away.
Alford said, “What caused me to run away was… I’m having issues with my dad and my mom is never in the house and every time I try to talk to her it’s just she doesn’t listen.”
Trinity wanted someone in her life that she could depend on and talk to, that one person was her mom, and she felt that she could not talk to her mom at all. Alford explained that every time she tries to talk to her mom, she never listens and is never in the house. Not to mention, there was tension with her father.
Trinity felt that she did not have a support system from either one of her parents. When Trinity is upset, she runs away from her home and goes to her cousin’s house.
“She [her cousin] understands me, and she listens to everything I tell her and gives me good advice and feedback.”
To this day, Alford doesn’t really think about running away because her situations at home have improved. She is able to talk to her mom more than before, but Alford still does not have the natural stream for open communication as she wishes.
