When Season 5 of the ABC Family hit show “Switched at Birth” returns in August the teen drama will be heavy with heartbreak and hard times.

E’s Spoiler Chat reports that actress Lea Thompson talked about her character Kathryn’s relationship to her legal daughter Bay (Vanessa Marano).

"With Bay dealing with the fallout from her breakup, Kathryn always tries to keep a stiff upper lip and keep everyone moving forward with a lighter touch," she said.

Thompson said that there will be a lot of new drama for Bay to deal with, and one of them is going to be different for the family.

“There's going to be big financial problems with John and Kathryn and that's going to be really challenging,” said the 54-year-old former “Back to the Future” star. "They're so used to being able to fix everything and being the mama and papa bear, but they can't this time and that's going to be really hard on them."

If the past is any indicator of the future, the new season will also find a way to bring in as many relevant social issues as possible.

Last season “Switched at Birth” aired a two-part show which explored on-campus sexual assault.

Speaking with Cosmopolitan about her reasoning behind bringing the subject up, show creator Lizzy Weiss said that it was about giving Bay a good storyline, but it was also to bring awareness to a topic that is prevalent.

Weiss acknowledged that recent media coverage of campus assaults was a major factor in allowing for the subject matter to be addressed on the series.

“Advocates for sexual assault were there and would bang the drum, but it doesn't feel like something that was really discussed until it was on the front page of newspapers this fall," she said. “That's a good thing."

“Switched at Birth” comes back to ABC Family for Season 5 on Aug. 24.