Biopsychosocial 1

Autobiographical Biopsychosocial Assessment

D'Corey Sullivan

The University of Mississippi

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Prenatal

I was my parents Sheila Pickering and Randy Sullivan's second child that they had

together. The two previously had my older brother 11 years before I was conceived. During

pregnancy, my mother stayed away from alcohol, and she has never smoked. She use to tell me

this weird story on how she found out she was pregnant with me. She told me that one day right

after she moved into our family home, my grandmother called her and told her she saw a black

snake crawling down one of our driveways. She explained to me that my grandmother told her

that snakes are attracted to breast milk so she must be pregnant. A few weeks later she found out

that she was expecting me. My mother went to all of her prenatal check-ups and had a very

healthy pregnancy. I came made my entrance to this world a couple of days before my due date. I

was Saturday my mother got up around 5 AM and began to clean her house, she says she knew I

was coming that day. Around 9 AM her water broke. She called my dad and my grandmother.

My dad didn't answer right ways because it was nearing the end of his shift, he worked overnight

back then. My grandmother answered right away and to take my mom to the hospital. Before

they left for the hospital my mom went into my older brother's room to let him know the big

news. My brother was not thrilled at all. He was the only child for 11 years and wasn't interesting

in having siblings so, he refused to go to the hospital with my mother. The hospital was 15

minutes away so they made it there in no time. My mom eventually gets a hold of my dad and he

rushes to the hospital with other family members witness my birth. My actual birth was very

funny and tricky. I made everyone wait all day for my arrival. My mom jokes and says that I

made everyone impatient including the doctor and nurses that they finally just had to reach in

with forceps to pull me out. When I finally did make my arrival at 3:06 PM on February 10th,
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1996, I have always been told that my head was cone-shaped and my grandma shaped my head

by pressing and massaging my scalp.

Infancy

As an infant, I had problems latching on for breastfeeding so my mom pumped for 2

months and then made the switch over to formula. I was an extremely spoiled baby because I

was the new baby of the family. Little did I know that I would be the baby of our family forever.

My parents never had any more children together after me and all of my aunts and uncle never

had any more children after I was born so, that left my grandma with 5 grands with me being the

youngest. I began to walk at 9 months and my first words were "mama". My mom says I learned

to walk so early because since I was so spoiled, I always wanted to be picked up and held. She

made it a rule for everyone to stop holding me so much. So, since people weren't coming up to

just pick me up anymore, I learned to walk up to people with my arms up to make them pick me

up.

Early childhood:

At around 2 years old I was potty trained. As stated earlier I was the baby of the family so

I was always around other the kids that were older than me. Being around older kids made me

advanced at a lot of things because I wanted to be a big boy. At age 3 I started attending head

start. My mom says that my teachers would tell her all the time how much more advanced I was

than other students. At 6 age the matriarch of the family, my grandmother, passed away from

stomach cancer. It was devastating for our family things were never truly the same after. Strong

family bonds just began to crumble so quickly after her passing. According to, Gladwin Mtshali,

M. N. (2016) "Black grandmothers play a pivotal role in child-rearing and parenting support."
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My older brother had a special bond with my grandma as well because he was her first

grandchild. After her passing, my brother began to spiral. My brother and my mom began to get

into altercations and that's when I first began to take the role of the "fixer" and middle man. I was

only 7 and having to listen to my brother vent about my mom and then my mom vent about my

brother. All of these things put together Is the reason why I want to do family counseling as a

career. I do feel like if counseling was as mainstreamed as it is now that it definitely would have

to help us with our issues. According to, Awosan, C. I., Sandberg, J. G., & Hall, C. A. (2011)

"Researchers have indicated that Black clients underutilize therapeutic services and are

inconsistent in their usage of the services once sought."

Middle childhood

I attended Hopewell Elementary; it was a small country school with grades K-6. Middle

childhood is when I realized that I was more advanced than other students. I always made good

greats and grasps new concepts very quickly. When I was in 2ND grade I remember taking an IQ

test to be placed in our school's gifted program which was called ALPHA at the time. I scored

high enough and was in ALPHA from 2nd grade through 6th. I was also inducted into the Jr.

Beta Club in 5th grade. At the end of the year, I remember we would have awards day program

and I would rack up every year. My mom has a room in her house with every award that my

brother and I have ever won. Also, in 2004 my immediate family took another hard blow. My

brother supposed to graduate high school in 2004 but ended up failing his US history state test

causing him not to graduate. That setback was hard on everyone especially my brother. He felt

like he let the entire family down but most importantly our deceased grandmother. My life

changed after that too because up until that point I was raised with a sibling in the household

with me. Shortly after founding out he wasn't graduating my brother moved out of our home to
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live with our dad. So, from the ages 8 until 20 I was raised as an only child because my brother

and mother became estranged. That is also when my mom began to make comments like" don't

be like your brother" which I know that she said that as a precaution but, telling a young child

that all the time wasn't good parenting. Don't get me wrong I have an amazing mother but if I

had to point out one parenting flaw that would be it.

Adolescence

During this stage in 2010, I moved schools. I went from a predominantly black school to

a predominantly white school. The changes were a part of the minority to majority program our

school district was implementing. This was a huge change for me. I use to go to a school where

white kids were the minority but his new school was different. It took me a while to get adjusted

to the new environment. My grades began to fall because I wasn't grasping the information as

well as I use too. Id didn't have a good study routine because I never had to study before. While I

was going through this this hard time all I could think of is my mom telling me not to be like my

brother. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself until I had a long talk with best friend, my dad.

This around the time that our relationship began to shift. He became much more than just my

father but my best friend. I literally can talk to my dad about any and everything. In 2012 right

before my 16th birthday, my dad suffered from a brain aneurysm. I remember my mom getting

that call that day so vividly. It was on a Saturday and every Saturday is clean-up day at her

house. We had just finished cleaning and I heard the phone ring from my room. I hear a bunch of

"Oh my God's", and before she got off the phone my phone vibrating with a message from my

older brother telling me the horrible news. One of my first cousins on my dad's side came and

picked me up to take me to the hospital to see him. When I got there, he was in the ICU, it's kind

of a blur but all I can remember is a lot of wires coming from his body connected to machines.
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The whole situation was really traumatizing. My dad is the strongest I know. He stayed in the

hospital for 1 month. The right side of his body was weaker than the left so he walked with a

walker for a while. His speech was also slurred. He started physical therapy and, in a year, he

was back to his normal self. They didn't do surgery on him because where the aneurysm is

located if they operate than he would be paralyzed. To this day he goes the doctor once a month

and is on special medication. One of the happiest days of my life was my high school graduation

in 2014. I remember being really happy because for the first time in a long time my family had

put all of the differences to the side to come together for this joyous occasion. Only the baby of

the family can bring about that much joy!

Early adulthood

During this stage, 2 monumental things happened. I was promoted to customer service

manager at Walmart making me the youngest member of management in the store and I was

preparing to move away to start undergrad at Ole Miss. This is the one time that being that baby

of the family didn't work in my favor. I almost didn't make it to Ole Miss for school because my

parents didn't want their "baby" to go way to north MS for school. I came to the university as a

transfer student because I went to a JUCO for the first 2 years. Coming to Ole Miss in 2016 was

one of the scariest things I had ever done. I literally moved almost 4 hours away from all of my

family to school. My safety net was gone. I had always been pretty independent but, just

knowing that my parents weren't at arm's length got to me a little. The transition from a JUCO to

a University was not smooth for me at all. Ole Miss is a great school but, the way they transition

transfer students needs some work. I eventually found my way and graduated in 2018. After

graduation, I knew my educational career wasn't over but I also knew that I wanted to take a
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break. So, I took a year off travel, lived my best life and turn down 2 job offers. Going on those

job interviews and turning down 2 jobs because of salary negotiations just pushed me, even

more, to get back into school. Now, a year and a half later here I am typing this paper for one of

my classes in the MSW program at Ole Miss.

I have many goals that I have set for myself but, the short-term goals I have set are,

passing this class with an A, ending my first semester in grad school with a 4.0, and graduating

from this program. I set the goal of having a 4.0 because I have never had a straight 4.0 in my

entire educational career. I've come close numerous times but not quite. I will complete this goal

by studying really hard for finals, asking questions in class or via email, and revising this paper

for a better grade if need be! Accomplishing the goal of 4.0 will also help me accomplish my

goal of graduation from this program and ultimately giving me a reason to get the whole family

together again for another joyous occasion that only the babies of the family can do.
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Works Cited

Awosan, C. I., Sandberg, J. G., & Hall, C. A. (2011). Understanding the Experience of Black

Clients in Marriage and Family Therapy. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, 37(2),

153–168. https://doi-org.umiss.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00166.x

Gladwin Mtshali, M. N. (2016). Role Reversal of Rural Black Grandparents in South Africa.

Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 47(3), 369–377. https://doi-

org.umiss.idm.oclc.org/10.3138/jcfs.47.3.369