My mother never in her life would have seen a professional. She was too high and mighty about being seen as 'common' (she was overly concerned about class status and social standing). But I look back on it now and it was clear she had mental health problems. In fact, they can be traced back several generations of obvious issues and dysfunction. I will guess she was Bipolar but there were a few incidents I recall now that might be suggestive of schizophrenia. She was also a closet alcoholic - which is common for people to self-medicate untreated mental health issues. Whatever it was I was her emotional punching bag. Oh I don't mean literally but she took out her problems on me. She was my biggest bully in life and seemed set on cruelty towards me - even publicly. The most difficult part about it all is that owing to her poor mental health it didn't take much to set her off and consequently I never knew when the attacks would happen. She was this way until her death. I don't think I ever got an I love you. I spent my life trying to fly under the radar in desperate attempts to avoid her wrath.