Online Survey Finds 30% Have Run Away From Home

A recent Tellwut Online Survey found that 30% of respondents had run way from home at least once in their lifetime. When panel members were asked if they felt they had made the right decision by running away, nearly half of the respondents agreed that they had make the correct choice – many claiming it was their only option; Keener writes “Bullied at home by my sister and bullied at school as well. Nobody bothered to help...not even my parents.”. While other online survey panel members reflected that they had other options available at the time and that in retrospect they felt badly about their decision, Cream100 says “Ran away again and again this went on from 12 to 17. Can't tell you how much I regret it and how sorry I am to my parents for having put them through that. It's hard to imagine that it was me doing those things, but it's true.” Throughout the years, run away teenagers have been glamorized through television, movies and even books – from 1951’s Catcher in the Rye’s, Holden Caulfield to contemporary teen drama’s on The CW - the solution to a terrible situation usually involves stowing away in the middle of the night or storming off in a melodramatic fashion. The leading cause of running away was anger or resentment towards a family member, capturing 16% of the vote followed by stress as the second place influence, and rounded out by family difficulties. Similarly enough to the characters of fictional tales, the majority of Tellwut online panel members ran away between the ages of 11 years old to 16 years old, as earlier quoted by Cream100 “Ran away again and again this went on from 12 to 17.” The early teen years are notoriously known as a tumultuous time filled with raging hormones and growing pains. Boopy16 writes, “When I was 16 I walked about 10 miles through the woods (at night) to my boyfriend's house. His parents called mine and my dad came to get me.” Sometimes running away feels like the only solution to a problem, whether you’re 5 years old or 55 years old the flight mentality appears to be the best option via the fight vs. flight response theory. And in some cases, running away is the best solution to escape from physical, verbal or sexual abuse that occurs at home. Smkay55 wonders aloud, “Does leaving an abusive husband count?” Almost 6% of Tellwut online survey members have escaped their living arrangements when they were adults. However in some instances running away can be looked back upon in a comical sense, Tellwut online panel member, Anema said, “Once when I was six years old I had big plans to strike out on my own. I put a sign up on my door that said (in crayons) I AM RUNING AWAY AND I AM NEVVIR COMMING BAK!! and then I tried to tie my belongings up in a bandana and tie that to the end of a stick just like Linus did when he ran away. I couldn't make everything fit, though, so I gave up.”