I agree, hanners. Severity and cycling are actually different diagnostic criteria (at least in the DSM IV). You could have someone who rapid cycles between hypomania and mild depression 8 times over the course of a year and it wouldn't be classified as particularly severe. But then you can have someone with only two mood shifts in a year, but who ranges from suicidal depression to florid psychotic mania. They would be classified as being severe. Bipolar is such an individualized illness. We're sort of like snowflakes that way.