When I started to read our blog assignment on stressors I immediately thought of a friend that I had while in elementary school through high school. She had one of the most stressful lives, brought on by the chaos in her family. Her mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and throughout her life was on and off drugs, such as meth and cocaine and never took her bipolar medicine correctly. Now, you would never guess looking at their house that that there would be a mother inside with a significant amount of mental health issues, but there was. My friend made it to high school with grace, moving through the motions and holding her head high even when it was chaotic at home. In high school, her parents finally split, and she was to live with her father. As much as her mother was going through, her mom took care of her and suddenly her father was the sole person responsible for her upbringing. My friend clearly resented her father and began to act out, which in return caused greater tension between the relationships in the family and cause my friend to act out even more.
She began by choosing boyfriends that her father didn't like and from there it when downhill. She ran away from home twice with her boyfriend for weeks at a time because she could not handle her now overbearing father. The second time he put her in a juvenile detention center (because he didn't know what else to do). Once she was out, she on her own terms decided to take a break with this new boyfriend. The boyfriend was outraged and then shot himself on her front porch (he did survive). She had reconnected with all of her friends after this incident (talk about some serious trauma) and tried to build a better relationship with her father. About a year later found a new boyfriend, in which her father liked until her found out when he was 11 that he had been charged with molestation. My friend still "loved" him and her father refused to let her to see him. They sneaked anyway they could to see each other and she eventually ended up getting pregnant. Her father forced her to get an abortion (which she still struggles with today) and her boyfriend got in a car accident that killed another person. All of this happened with in about a half a year. It was utterly chaotic for her. She had a father that was trying to do his best but did not know how to talk with her and a child rebelling because her father could not talk with her. She suffered from trauma and was expected to act like a "normal" kid. I am happy to say she will be graduating from college with a degree in educational psychology in about 2 weeks.
She was able to get out of her terribly chaotic upbringing and turn her life around. Her father was also able to do the same thing. They now have a great relationship where they talk about the future and not about the past.
Environmental Pollution- Clean water- in India:
"On April 01, 2010 at least 18 babies in several hamlets of Bihar’s Bhojpur district have been born blind in the past three months because their families consume groundwater containing alarming levels of arsenic,..." (www.Gits4u.com, 2011).
Imagine, having this as a stressor in your lives. Drinking water seems like such an easy thing, to me. People need 20 liters of water (5.2 gallons) for drinking and their sanitation needs (www.Gits4u.com, 2011). This can be a huge stressor for children and their families because 38 % in India live below the poverty line (Azad India Foundation, 2010). Living below the poverty can directly decrease families chances to access to clean water. Foundations such as UNICEF have goals to achieve by 2015 and are making progress to try an provide clean water (UNICEF, 2010).
Azad India Foundation (2010). Poverty in india. Retrieved from http://www.azadindia.org/social-issues/poverty-in-india.html
UNICEF (2010). Goal: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.htm
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