Hi, I am having issues with my biological mother. I am 16 years of age and will be turning 17 in a little under two months. I have been having issues with my Mother since before I can barely remember. My father has never been in the picture, and her many boyfriends when I was younger were also abusive. I suffered large amounts of physical, verbal and emotional abuse all throughout the 16 years I spent living under her roof.
For example, when I was about two and a half years old, she hired a babysitter to spend a Friday night with me and my older brothers, both were under five at the time as well. Well she didn't come home Saturday, or Sunday or Monday... I don't know how long we were left with him, but all we had to eat was instant oatmeal the entire time, until we ran out and he ended up bringing us to our local Police Department. My oldest brother gave them my grandmother's number, and she came and picked us up and we stayed with her for a while. This was not the first or last occasion when my grandmother 'saved' us. She thought she was doing what was right, though all three of us know we would have been better off somewhere else.
Another example would be when I was eight years old, I'd gained a few pounds due to a drop in my metabolism, and that's when she started calling me fat all of the time. And by the time I was twelve, it had escalated to that I was "Destined to drop out of high school and become a worthless trailer trash slut with a million kids and no man because I was too ugly for anyone who wanted more that a good..." Well you get the point.
Anyway, sorry for getting carried away with the details. I left her home at the end of last September, I'd tried to leave on many occasions before, but she'd called me a run away and played the concerned mother role, so the cops picked me up. I have been living with a friend and her family, who are interested in trying to gain custody of me. My mother is still receiving my child tax benefit as well, though she has been putting some of it into my bank account each month.
Also, she had been holding onto my card to the bank account I started when I was eleven, because I was 'irresponsible' and would loose it or spend all of my money instead of saving it like I planned to. (She went through I think five cards, and would use my bank card to buy whatever she happened to want. Two summers ago, I had my first real job. I made over a thousand dollars that summer, bringing my bank account total to around eighteen hundred dollars. When I moved out and went to get some money to pay my school fees, she'd drained my account and I was left with nothing. My life savings, gone.
Although I can choose to live wherever I want at 16, I can not do virtually anything without her signature and permission. This is inconvenient, and she is unreliable, and I couldn't contact her for almost two full months recently. I'm going into grade 12 this fall and continuing depending on her signature is a cause for mass amounts of stress, to a point that it's unhealthy.
I just really would love it if anyone could give me any advice please?!? I don't think I can stand this much longer and it is very important that I change the circumstances.

