Whats an expression that you can use to say that somebody else's words stirred up some deep emotions/memories you forgot you had? For example: "sorry for the rant, but your comment _____ "

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"...brought up some bad memories" --if it's negative things that it brought to mind. It reminded you of some bad memories and the emotions linked to them. Made you think about them.

"...hit a nerve" -- if it is just a sensitive, emotional, strongly felt, personal subject. Nerve pain can be sudden, intense, painful, impossible to ignore, and create an immediate physical reaction before you even have the chance to think about it (it is just automatic). So when we say that something "hit a nerve" then that means someone seemed to react much stronger than expected, taking something very personally, having extremely strong feelings about it, being either angry/hurt/offended/impassioned/frightened/etc. But it is disproportionate and an intense reaction. They feel extremely strongly about it, usually being either somewhat negative or strongly negative. So it is almost like it struck or hit an emotional nerve. It hit something personal, even if it wasn't meant to be. Maybe it hit an insecurity they have. Maybe it struck an old hurt they had thought they were already over and done with, so the hurt caught them off guard. Maybe it got too close to an issue they are in denial about, so it's a sore subject that they don't even want to think about. Stuff like that.

"...hit too close to home" -- if something was unexpectedly too personal in a way that most people wouldn't know, so it was hard for you to react normally to it. It hit deeper than anyone expected it to, because of your own personal history on the subject (which they probably didn't even realise or know about, so it was probably not on purpose).

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The type of reactions are normally a bit different. So:

Both "brought up some bad memories" and "hit too close to home" tend to make people more quiet, withdrawn, hurt feelings, lost in memories, sensitive, etc. So if they rant, it may be to advocate for someone/something they feel is vulnerable or misunderstood, to correct a misconception, to promote more understanding about something they feel is important, to talk about how deeply important something is (if they feel a topic wasn't being taken seriously enough), etc.

"hit a nerve" tends to make people lash out, react, attack or blame the one who set things off. So if they rant, it is probably to correct or punish someone, make them feel bad, blame or accuse or attack them for it, take it out on them, make their displeasure known, condemn something/someone, etc. It is a lot more intense, angry, upset, lashing out, etc.