I've heard of people achieving long term remission without drugs but everyone's brain is different and needs different things.
I think that like with dealing with unipolar depression you need to be normal for long enough for your brain to get used to being like that. You need to spend time doing all the pychotherapy stuff to give you the ability to deal with your emotions.
Where BP differs from unipolar depression is that we also have to find a way to deal with the way our brains can take off in any direction like a runaway train... So we need to be able to identify triggers, recognise early warning signs and have effective ways to respond to stabilise our moods...
I know that it will be a long while before I'm there, cos my brain is only just used to being normal(ish),