Tamra Judge was already in tears upon arriving at her therapist's office on The Real Housewives of Orange County Season 19 premiere.
"I have been crying since last week's session," she said, describing how four months of "talking about stuff that I don't wanna talk about" was taking a major emotional toll on her.
"My sensory issues are heightened," Tamra added. "My intrusive thoughts are out of control right now."
Her doctor responded by reminding her that that they had "talked about unprocessed trauma and whether or not the spectrum was part of this," thought it would be difficult to officially diagnose her with until she completed an assessment.
Tamra, who previously described her main therapy goal as finding out where her "anger stems from," had already discovered that unpacking her past traumas was necessary work, though — and seemed to have picked up some important tools and knowledge on her mental health journey.
"I realized that you have to dig up those things that are buried deep inside of you because those are the things that come out when you get angry," she explained in a confessional.
Tamra Judge opens up about her estranged daughter, Sidney Barney
One emotionally "heavy topic" Tamra had to "dig up" involved her estranged daughter, Sidney Barney (with ex-husband Simon Barney).
"The custody battle that my ex put me through, my daughter leaving me, you know, my dad leaving us and all… It's hard," she told a producer. "And I never really wanted to do it. And here I am."
Back in the session, after Tamra further shared her goals to no longer be "so responsive, impulsive, explosive, and harsh with [her] words," her therapist explained that "people with trauma don't respond in ways that people are gonna expect" and asked if she associates "feeling misunderstood" with Sidney.
"Yeah, she just never even really gave me a chance," Tamra — who's also mom to Sophia Barney and sons Spencer Barney and Ryan Vieth — responded. "And most the time I can bury it."
The RHOC 'Wife also unpacked her fear that if she gets close to people, "they'll turn on" her, leading to trust issues and having "very few people that [she] can really talk to" now. Tamra also said she puts up "kind of a front" to protect herself from getting hurt.
"I just don't want to lash out when I'm mad, even if somebody's done me wrong," she said in a confessional. "I wanna fix things."
Tamra Judge sheds new light on her bad year
Bringing up how she disclosed on her and Teddi Mellencamp's podcast, Two Ts in a Pod, in October 2024 that she's "on the spectrum" (referencing autism spectrum disorder), Tamra admitted that she "misspoke" and "shouldn't have said anything," noting that she got "publicly annihilated" afterward. (One standout on-screen negative social media comment was from Gretchen Rossi, who will appear on RHOC Season 19.)
"I had a really s–tty last year," she told her therapist, before adding in a confessional, "It was very hurtful. People think that I don't have feelings, and it's not true. I'm tired of being called a horrible human being because I'm not."
While talking to husband Eddie Judge later on, Tamra also described sometimes feeling "sad" that she and "heartless" Shannon Storms Beador were "not friends anymore" after the latter "betrayed [her] in the worst way." At the time, she was also deep in another friendship falling out with castmate Jennifer Pedranti.
If that wasn't enough, Tamra, meanwhile, was also reeling from "best friend" Teddi's then-fresh brain tumors diagnosis.
"I am a shell of a person right now because I can't imagine my life without my best friend," she tearfully told a producer. "I've gotta put on a brave face, and it's not easy."
