Yea it is confusing as hell. When I was orig diagnosed with major depression, I understood that. Then the next year when another doc took over changed to bipolar. But I don't see me fitting in any of the time frames and durations so I'm at loss as to what the heck I am. I have gone as long as 5 years with normal or close to normal, not perfectly normal, but pretty stable and off meds too! Average is about a year or 2. Now when I get depressed, it can be for a day or a week or a month next I can go baseline or go directly to hypomania. I don't think I ever had full blown mania but my delusions and hallucinations seem to indicate I have. These periods can last a day a week , 2 weeks or even a month. There doesn't seem to be any freaking pattern to me. I brought this up to the pdoc, she just says "your bipolar trust me". Drives me nuts some times.