This past February, I had a breakdown at work (I am a teacher), took a medical leave of absence, was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, prescribed meds, and began to see a therapist. In August, I had another crisis, was hospitalized, and diagnosed as bipolar. I was prescribed meds, and I have continued seeing my therapist (I take Welbutrin SR, Lithium, & Klonopin). Several months ago, I made an offhand comment about how my mother used to beat the crap out of me, and my T asked me about it. I told her I had reconciled myself to it and that my mom and I had made peace before her death 7 years ago. And I honestly believed that. I'm 44 years old--how can something from that long ago effect me? This weekend, however, I saw something on TV that whacked me upside the head and threw me for a loop. I fell to pieces. My husband had no idea what was going on while I was sitting there on the couch sobbing. Sunday night and Monday night I could hardly sleep, and when I did fall asleep, I had horrible nightmares about things my mother had done to me. I could barely function yesterday, so I called my T's office and they were able to switch my appointment to today. I started to tell her about my mom, and then the floodgates opened. I was mad, I was crying--I couldn't believe what was coming out of mouth. She was so great, guiding me along, making me feel safe as I continued and told her things I used to do as a kid as a response to the abuse (I had never told ANYONE about that). Anyway, she added PTSD to my diagnosis and I said "no way." My husband is active duty military, and I am an Army veteran, so I know about PTSD, and I surely didn't think it applied to me. Apparantly it does, though. She told me the more I talk about it the more I will heal, and that if I want to tell her more, or even if I want to go over the same stuff again, the pace is up to me. Because I am new to this, I am reassured by the fact that there is forum for PTSD on this site. Is there anyone else that was made aware of their PTSD by an incident out of the blue like this?