But that is another issue for another night. There is little the mom can do about her situation. She can't afford to move out - she has no way of feeding her little family. There are far more of these situations than we realize. Think of all the situations we can get in and over which we have no control.
Unemployment is high stress as is working for unreasonable bosses and incompetent supervisors.
Poverty situations create high stress as do some illnesses. At any rate we can locate any number of situations which generate bad stress and leave our health affected and our lives endangered. Because stress affects our cardiovascular system causing premature aging. Bad stress can cause all sorts of gastro-intestinal illnesses. Bad stress can create circumstances where cancer breaks out.