According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, an attorney for the former 'Love & Hip Hop' star is petitioning the court in her child abuse case to allow Tommie to get treatment for a serious mental illness. She says she was diagnosed before or around the same time as she was charged with child abuse, and her condition is a significant part of her case.

Tommie says she's willing to meet a long list of requirements to enter the program, such as staying sober, submitting to random drug testing and attending self-help meetings. It's the first step in a month-long process ... applications are considered by a committee, which includes a prosecutor, and it will take about 30 days to decide Tommie's fate.

While Tommie doesn't reveal her specific diagnosis in the docs ... when she sat down with our Raquel Harper for a 2016 episode of "Raq Rants," Tommie said she was bipolar.