How would you grow on your own after being completely abandoned and neglected by your family?

Join clubs. Go to the library. Pick up a hobby.

Buy a motorcycle.
- Or a bunch of weird knives

Volunteer with an organization in your area. Meet people to work with and help people.

I know this might sound really weird. Like “how can I help people when I have so many unmet needs myself?” But volunteering is the way to meet a need that we all have which can’t really be met by friends: the need to be needed.

I suffered from depression for most of my adult life. Volunteering has done so much for me to help me feel valued, to show me I have something to contribute, and to give me a break from my own issues for a few hours at a time.

It’s also a great place to make friends. And generally what I’ve found is that the people who volunteer are pretty nice, gentle people. Much more likely to make a good friend than a random person you might meet.

I hope you decide to give it a try! You have so much to offer! And keep in mind that if you pick something you don’t really enjoy doing you can always try something else. My regular gig is a volunteer homework club for newcomer/refugee high school students. Been helping there for 8 years now. Love it!

Find friends online, communicate with them every day. Keeping up healthy relationships could be difficult if your family never taught you to maintain them

That's what I did, still have some trouble with IRL relationships though.
- do you need any resources for finding a place to live, or travel or anything?

As a baby or at least old enough to have some autonomy?

As an adult who had zero support from anyone. Disregarded, ignored, neglected and abandoned by family. Othered, dehumanized, and alienated in school, with all the staff deliberately discouraging any growth. Having only bullies, stalkers, and attempted rapists as friends (you deserve it though). I made my first actual friend almost a year ago but I feel like he doesn't understand me entirely. And I feel overly attached so I'm even questioning if I actually love him or not. He's literally the first person who has treated me like a human being, outside of customer service people.
- "(you deserve it though)"
  That part right there has to go. Before much of anything else can change, that belief must go.
  Any number of people can tell you any number of times that you deserve better, but until this belief that you deserve to be mistreated actually changes in inside you, in your way of thinking day to day, little else will change in a meaningful way.
  Good friends who treat you like humans help, it sounds like you found one of those so far. Good therapists help more, if you can find a good one.
- Hey bud it sounds like our experiences may have quite a bit of overlap. I think the #1 thing that helps here is learning to have and respect healthy boundaries. Internal and external boundaries allow you to have more fulfilling relationships and feel more fulfilled yourself. These are things that a lot of people kind of implicitly learn from their families, but we weren't so lucky. If you have the option and can find a good therapist, they can help you with this. Otherwise, there are a lot of good books about boundaries that you can probably get from your local library or Amazon.
- I think you should request permission to vent and then vent to him. Having only your thoughts can cloud your judgement.
  questioning if I actually love him or not.
  Platonic love? I'm sure you do.

Get job. Sustain self. It's really not rocket science.

It's only a little challenging but that depends on how one has mooched off of their family for and people like that, have a less likelihood of surviving on their own.

Get job. Sustain self. It's really not rocket science.
Half of US is struggling to do this as is. It is not rocket science but the current economic condition makes the ability to self sustain a coin flip. This coin flip is heavily influenced by amount of parental support, which is precisely the conditions OP is facing.
You are also overlooking the emotional damage that abandonment causes.
0/10
Good job boomer!
This is quite possibly one of the most privileged and braindead responses I've ever seen.
- Coming from someone who probably smokes weed like a deadbeat.
I moved out at 18 and haven’t relied on my family for anything since. It’s not that I hate them; in fact I’m very close to my family but it’s just expected that that’s what you do.
Granted, that was in the Midwest where I could afford a brand new apartment on minimum wage. I’m not sure how I would’ve done this in California (where I live now).