So, now that my heart calmed down, I have a question.

[Kenhotu]

So, I had a bit of a scare today, I just downloaded the new version, 0.5.2, and tried to access my wallet to add in a new address, so I entered in my password, and could not decrypt it. Upon reverting to 0.5.1 the password worked. I'm wondering if this is common or normal, or is this some bug I just encountered?

[P4man]

Havent tried the new version yet, so I cant answer your question; I will say that if this scared you, then I suspect you have not done what you should have done, that is make (encrypted) backups of your wallet. Use this "scare" as an opportunity to do it now

[Kenhotu]

I have backups, but they were all encrypted through the bitcoin software, I'm changing that now, though, after this.

[jake262144]

If you do have a secure backup of the wallet file why don't you research that issue?

Try re-installing 5.2 again. You have nothing to lose but a bit of time.
I strongly believe that your "bug" amounts to a typo, caps lock being turned on or some other trivial matter.

Doing backups of an unencrypted wallet is an insanely wrong idea.
The only worse thing that comes to mind is never bothering with any kind of backups at all.

It's critically important that you only download the client from a trusted source, like the Bitcoin homepage. It will redirect you to sourceforge for the actual download.
Never download from random sites, rapidshare, or bit-torrent as it well could be booby-trapped.