Is it normal to have a time of year when things just seem to fall apart mental-healthwise?

The holidays have never been easy for me say since I was 18 or so and seem to have gotten harder & harder as years have gone by. Now, it seems like every year, I fall apart around Thanksgiving, early December and end up in the psych hospital.

I get so stressed out. And there are not only the holidays but my daughter has a December birthday, and there is also an anniversary of a sexual assault incident I experienced many years ago, but still have trouble getting past when the anniversary rolls around. Compounding all of it this year is the election next week.

I have huge anxiety and panic attacks and even times of paranoia that I'm going to black out one day and wake up in a psych hospital days and days later without a clue as to what happened in between. I am not like members here able to type and post during psychosis; when I get psychotic, I can't even TALK to people and I black out for days on end, waking up in a hospital bed, sometimes completely restrained because apparently I would be yelling nonsense & combative though I never remember any of it.

I am just so anxious going into that time of year again....

How do you get past a time of year that always triggers you?