I pondered this and pondered it for the longest time while I was medicated...

Its a question I posed to others as well, because I wasn't sure what my meds were supposed to be doing really and I wanted to know if they were working... I do know that a fast acting AP taken PRN has stopped mania / psychosis in its tracks for some people, so there's defintily that.Tranqing us during a crisis has been known to bring some relief and shown visible results...

Being unmedicated? My cycles and episodes are much the same as when I was medicated (with my first cocktail, not the second one from hell), the only main difference is that my head was quieter with meds. Eventually I honestly could NOT stand the silence...

Uhmmm so yeah, I'm bipolar on meds and I'm bipolar off meds, and bipolar is cyclical either way. The pendulum will swing whether I want it to or not, with or without meds.

So in my humble opinion, I think its the bipolar and not the meds, since the meds didn't prevent the episode, there's nothing suggesting it actually managed to end it.

From what I've learned, I think how meds are "supposed" to work, is that they are supposed to decrease the magnitude and hopefully the frequency of episodes.