How important is GPA going to be this fall?

Many schools will remain test optional in the coming admissions cycle, meaning additional emphasis may be placed on the other parts of your application (especially the academic indicators like GPA). However, if you have the opportunity to send in test scores, these will still be considered and in your case may be pretty helpful in serving as an external indicator of your academic strength. That said, if this time period shows a marked departure in your performance from what you are normally putting out, it may be worth explaining in the additional info section. If you end up going this route (which is totally fine and shouldn't be scary!), be sure to approach it in a specific way: mention why your academic performance saw a dip, but do not wallow on the problems and the negative emotion or events associated with these issues. Instead, describe the problem enough to give the reader a sense of the magnitude and why it affected you, and then spend most of the space demonstrating what you did to rectify the situation and what you achieved as a result. End on the lessons you've learned and how they will help you manage stressors in college; showing the growth arc and the future-facing attitude is the most important part here. It sounds like you have plenty of that, so don't stress yourself out too much! Keep working to raise those grades and show a strong senior year performance, and you'll be able to show that this dip was a fluke caused by external circumstances. Best of luck to you!