Ooooooh, yeah. Hear ya, BlackPup! Flippin' textbook case here. Still, went years and years w/o diagnosis. What ended up leading to the dx was going to a GP in the midst of a massive depressive phase. She prescribed ADs. BIG problem. In short, went through hell. Finally was properly diagnosed by a Pdoc. Learning about BPII was like reading my life story. It wasn't "like", it WAS.

Mood stabilizing med made a very big difference. In terms of cycling, I can flip-switch quite quickly, but overall, the states last much longer, especially depression. Longest hypomania (since knowing what it is, lol!) was about a month and a half. Most much shorter. Depression... it's hard to say, though many went on for months and months, there were also 3 years when the vast majority of time was spent there. (So, as you can imagine, I laugh at the 4 days and 2 weeks criteria! ) In terms of quick switch-flips, I almost don't even think of those as the same as the others. How to describe it? I think of it like... depression _or_ hypomania_or_ "bouncing" (my word, obviously not technical!). (The other option being "even" of course, though I barely knew it before meds.) I can suddenly plunge into despair or be flipping off the walls, but that is not a constant state of affairs for me.

Blueoctober is right in recommending keeping a mood tracker. I've been keeping one for quite awhile now. Huge help, in that I have an absolutely horrible sense of time. It helps to have it right there in black and white as a reference, especially in terms of how long phases go and the things that can affect them.