I have had symptoms of bipolar 2 ever since I was a young child and went un-medicated until this year. I took on too many units and jobs which caused me to experience my first manic episodes. This had a snowballing effect on my mania and was only able to get it under control when meds kicked in.

I honestly doubt that many people with bipolar 1 can function well completely un medicated since mania causes us to do many stupid societally un-acceptable things. If there is a bipolar 1 success story I would certainly love to hear it.