The time I got off meds to see the 'pure' pattern of my swings I went into (ultra?) rapid cycling - every two days and then every day, spinning more and more out of control before I started crashing - but I had already started a new med (sodium valproate) by the time that happened so it stopped me from crashing completely I think. And in time I stabilised.
I have never seen myself fitting in any of the bp 'moulds' I've read about and even my diagnosis was as vague as it could be: 'you're affected by a disorder on the bipolar spectrum' and after that the pdoc said I'm a rather peculiar case (to which I wanted to say, aren't we all?!?!?) Anyway, I do wonder if that's because of the rapid cycling (which a year ago had made another pdoc contemplate the possibility of a personality disorder to explain the rapid cycling, as if day by day mood swings are absurd in BP)