could problem solving save you?

When I had to face moving with my two young children without money and without knowing how the new location would be for my career I thought I would die of stress.
Everyday I would calculate each and every step I would have to take in order to get my kids safely to the new location with better prospects ahead. Now I am thinking all those calculations kept me busy and thinking of a new phase instead of giving in to depression which has been a mental condition since my early childhood. Later PTSD was added from an abusive marriage and the entrapment because of my children. Moving was my only sanctuary. My business was destroyed by new tax laws and no support for single mothers, and had nothing after being a publisher for almost 15 years, the only thing I had was my children and they had to get a better life. 
I think most people being trapped in a situation like this for over a decade would be ill of anxiety as I was but that anxiety and its transforming into a positive possibility of the future avoided a bad illness probably - a deeper psychological illness and a more serious physical one
I wonder if we always had huge problems to solve for our survival - would we get sicker or healthier - I know it all depends on the individual... maybe there is research done toward that way