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My menstrual cycle has been very odd and I am looking for opinions.?

I am a college freshman. For the first eight years since puberty began, my periods have been irregular and spaced far apart, but always very heavy. They gradually became more regular and slightly lighter until the last year of high school, when they became very regular (monthly) and only moderately heavy. However, the first time I had it after graduation, it lasted about a week, then stopped...then came back a day or two later, four times in a row. It then disappeared for about a month before coming back, and it is doing the same thing. They are now very heavy again.

I am not sexually active, nor am I on any sort of birth control because it tends to aggravate my dysthymia. This type of thing has never happened before. I do plan to see a doctor if it continues or gets worse, but would prefer to gather input here first, as I am very shy about menstruation when discussing it offline rather than over the internet. My current speculation is that I was under a lot of stress in middle and especially high school, and my periods eventually regulated themselves to account for that, and now that the factor has been removed, they must re-regulate. Is this theory biologically sound, or does it "not work that way"? Is there anything I can do to lessen the bleeding, such as eating certain foods or lying a certain way while sleeping? Are there any other possible conclusions that can be derived from the information I have given so far?
I am not experiencing pain or cramping. I have researched both cervical and ovarian cancer, and do not have any symptoms of either, save for the menorrhagia.