Something seriously wrong with my cat

OK heres my problem. I was living in Alaska and had to move back to the east coast because I am in the middle of getting a divorce. I was only away from my cat for 1 month. I still have another cat and my dog who is still with my ex husband at the moment. On Friday she flew from Alaska to the east coast and was in the carrier for about 20 hrs. She typically doesn't like being in the carrier and she never flew before.

Well, my parents picked her up from the airport friday night and got her back to their house. She started hissing and growling at them and hid. Well, yesterday, they dropped her off at my apt, and I am currently living with someone who has 2 male cats. They both been fixed so thats good. However, yesterday, she didn't hide at first but she did a lot of hissing and growling at me and the cats. I tried picking her up and holding her but she didn't even like that. She used to love being held. I went out to the store, came back and found her hiding under the bathroom sink. She wasn't here alone as my roommate was here. Couple hours later she came out of hiding.

Today she is doing a lot of angry meowing, hissing and growling and still doesn't wanna be held. But she has been purring on and off and once in awhile she will wanna be petted or her head scratched. And sometimes when she purrs, she will purr, growl then go back to purring then growls again. She isn't hiding anymore, but she is keeping her distance from the other 2 cats. She is eating and drinking.

I don't know whats causing this behavior. She usually very friendly, wants to be held a lot, purrs a lot. Just overall a very good, sweet cat. I don't know if its from all the changes from flying and being cooped up in a carrier and going to a new environment and dealing with 2 cats she never met before. Or something happened during transit, or worse, my ex husband made her change by being abusive towards her. He has a past experience of abusing my dog couple times so it wouldn't put it past me.

I really cant afford to take her to the vets right now so I'm hoping that maybe someone can give me an idea on whats going on. Also, forgot to add, but yesterday she didn't like a lot of sudden movements. She would growl and hiss. She still kinda like that today to, but not as bad. She never was like that before either. Oh yea, should add but 1 of the other cats, just been keeping his distance and so has the other cat, but the other cat whenever he sees my cat, he hisses and growls at her.

I have tried giving her attention and treats, and even going as far as just ignoring her and giving her space unless she comes to me and nothing seems to be working. So any advice or ideas besides taking her to the vets?

Unfortuantly we live in a 1 bedroom apt, and I sleep out in the living room. She has been spending a lot of time in the bedroom today laying on the bed in there though. And the other 2 cats spend about 95% of the time out in the living room with us. So while I dont have an actual quiet space for her, I guess she found 1 on her own. I kinda figured she probably just going through a lot at the moment with all the changes, but wasn't sure. Hopefully she will snap out of this phase and soon. Breaks my heart seeing her like this. She doesn't mind my roommate and her 1 month old baby. She has actually approached them today and wanted to be petted and she was ok. It just mainly the cats I think, plus all the traveling and new environment. She did "kiss me" this morning, which is a huge turn around from yesterday.

Well things are getting little better, except now theres a new problem that goes with an old problem...being held. My roommate was able to pick her up and hold her for a minute before she let her down, and so I went and tried picking her up cuz she acted like she wanted to be held again, but I picked her up and she just hissed and growled a lot. I don't get it. 1 minute she is fine with someone she doesn't even know really picking her up, next min, I try pickin her up and she gets a huge fit about it. I don't know what to do. I'm so upset about this, that I had to fight back tears earlier tonight. I mean she will approach me to let me pet her, but holding her? Forget it. She is also doing it to someone else who lives here to, and she knows him pretty well also, but he tries to hold her, she just flips out.

Well now things are getting very interesting. No one is picking her up, but she will now come up to someone, climb on them (lap, shoulder, etc) will purr and then like a min later, BAM, sudden mood change. She starts getting pissed off, growls, does a mean meow like she getting frustrated or something and then jumps off the person. That is NOT normal behavior for ANY cat regardless what they have been through.

Well techincally it is a good thing I didn't listen to the advice on here cuz NONE of it worked. She is now letting me hold her, infact she jumped into my arms and on my shoulder to let me hold her earlier today. I had called my mom yesterday and she said the way she is acting is how an abused animal acts. Which means most likely my ex abused her before she got to me. And best thing to do is just show her a lot of love. And thats exactly what we did, and it worked. She still gets a little fiesty at times, but its a HUGE turn around from couple days ago. Oh and as for the other 2 cats, shes warming up to them. Those steps like put her in a room alone for few days, is nonsense. Best way and the way it worked and is working, is to let them just slowly warm up to each other. Dont force it upon them, let them be able to approach each other when THEY are ready.