I just watched a movie last night called On the Inside with Olivia Wilde about a convicted murderer sent to a mental institution where he meets a female patient he falls in love with during minimum-security co-ed visiting hours. The girl he likes is bipolar, and has been in the institution for two years, who has no hope of returning to the outside world and living a normal life.

So that made me wonder, how severe does one's bipolar have to be to be locked up in a mental institution for years, without any hope of returning to the outside world? What would have to happen to be locked up like that? Would they not be able to function normally? Would they be delusional or paranoid for long periods of time?