Hi everyone, my name is Karla. I live in Pretoria, South Africa and I'm 22 years old.

I haven't been diagnosed, but through all the research that I've done (I've done a lot!) I'm afraid there might be a strong possibility that I have bipolar II, as most of the symptoms describe me.
Thinking back a few years I noticed that I've always had these 'dips' and 'peaks', but I and my family just assumed it was teenage hormones.
About six month ago I went through a very traumatic experience where I lost my partner of 5 years.
Initially I just thought it was depression because of what I experienced, but I noticed I got better after about two months, and the I was doing great for a couple of weeks.
I've made peace with what happened, I've accepted it, but after that last good spell I fell into another deep depression, I hurt myself, I still have suicidal thoughts every day. This happened to me twice in the last few months, where I was doing great, making plans for the future and the I just fall back into this depression that no-one seems to understand.
I went to see a clinical psychologist for the first time this week, I haven't mentioned that I feel like I have bipolar, I don't know how to bring it up with her. I'm afraid that she thinks I'm self diagnosing something that isn't there. I'm afraid she thinks this is just depression from what happened. But I feel like I should try and bring it up, in case I do have it, because I wouldn't want it to get worse if it is bipolar.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to bring it up and talk to her about it?