Children cling onto their parents the more they get hit and screamed at, because on their own they'd probably not survive, and thus they need to invoke some sort of sympathy from someone who can help them live long enough for them to live by themselves.
The child is ignorant of what choices it has, and even if it were to be informed there are set boundries in its head that are hard to overcome, thus it sticks with its abusive parents. Our minds are limiting, and in our limitation we fail to do what we later realize would've been the right action. In this case the child would've been able to go to some adoption house where it'd be treated better than where he/she currently is, but because of commitment to the parents that idea isn't even gonna get any consideration. The child is a slave to poor decisions.
My proposition to finding your way and not being overwhelmed by the currents that try to push you along their stream, is that you hit the bedrock of who you are as a person so much so that you'd be able to describe yourself in paper and someone would say "this is a good fictional character whose motivations etc are clear". By doing this you can go on autopilot and still complete the best course of action, and it'd be less stressful and time consuming.
In other words, find out who you are, and then be yourself.