It’s unlikely your forebears considered themselves “stressed out.” That phrase is a relatively modern one. But what might be a good idea to get some perspective on your ancestor is to pick a year and think about what events might have happened in their life.
Did a parent also die the year they married and had their first child? Did their husband, sister, and father both die within a few months of each other (from separate illnesses–which happened to my great-great-grandmother in 1913). Did their mother die from cancer three weeks before they lost their last child in childbirth (as happened to my grandmother)?
Think about what else might have been going on in your ancestor’s life or what events might have happened in close proximity to each other. It might give you some perspective.
Try a Genealogy Search on GenealogyBank.
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My maternal grandmother’s mother raised four young children while being abused by her husband, my great grandfather. Their 1911 divorce is a matter of public record; he died in 1912. She lost a sister and her father in 1915, remarried and had another child in that time frame. She passed away in 1921. My grandmother not only lost her mother at 18, but also her 14 year old brother later in the year. She married at the age of 19 in 1922.
I’ve looked at these tumultuous years from the perspective of my grandmother, her mother, her brother who died young, and from her half sister born in 1916… and just shake my head, occasionally cry.
I didn’t know any of this until I started researching family history in 2018.
I understand completely and it’s no wonder sometimes that people didn’t want to talk about certain things or time periods.