FOr me, highs and lows vary.... in fact I really only have lows. I am either really depressed or depressed. I rarely feel elevated and have never been manic. When I start to feel sped up it's a bad feeling of irritability and I can be very violent throwing things and yelling at people and all that. Often a "mini high" will follow the depressive episode.

The frequency of cycling is different for everyone. For me, the longest stable period I have had was like 2 months last year. Otherwise I am depressed basically.

The episodes aren't always really bad. I seem to be finally coming out a a bad episode that lasted 4 months but it depends. Again, it varies based on the cycle. Also if you're compliant with your meds and you're in close contact with the pdoc, you can often avoid a really bad cycle by a med adjustment. If you haven't yet been stabilized on a mood stabilizer (though Lamictal is sometimes used as a mood stabilizer) it's be hard to tell what your cycles are like. Expect to start cycling if you become extremely stressed or have too many changes at once. Also if you miss a day or two of meds, that can often kick off a cycle. Not sleeping is really bad and can either kick off a cycle or indicate that you're already headed toward mania.

My suggestion to you is that for the beginning stages right now, keep a mood journal. Go to Google and type in bipolar disorder mood chart. You'll come up with a few different kinds and you can look and see which one fits what you're going through the best. Different people like different graphs.

I wish you the best. The begining is always the hardest because you don't know what's typical or not typical for you. Hang in there and take care!!!