Yep, social anxiety and self-imposed isolation are definitely part of the fun. As far as I know, there is no 'normal' length of a depressive episode. There are "rapid-cyclers" that can pass from mania to depression and back within the course of a single day. For years, even while I was 'stable under medication', I went through an underlying mood cycle in an eight month waveform, four months high, four months low. It was astonishingly regular and predictable. Then my disease became worse after I burnt out of Silicon Valley and each of my parents died of cancers, then I had a falling-out with my only brother that led to a dangerous mania that lasted three months, followed by a staggering depression that has lasted eighteen months and still hasn't ended. I was desperate in the unprecedented length and depth of this latest depression and was ready to start ECT (electroconvulsive therapy; it took me a while to qualify as a heart condition presented a stroke risk) when the stress of a major transition began to bring me back around. My theory is that our underlying disease has a rhythm, which is then interrupted or modulated by medication or other treatments, and further affected by personal circumstances and life events. You must have faith that the very nature of the disorder is inevitable change, and that whatever agony you are feeling, if you are patient, will pass. Accept the social anxiety, learn to function in isolation, seek treatment and know that you will recover. Best wishes.