Mine were shorter because I kept getting ADs which made me manic then I'd crash and they'd up the AD dose which would make me manic which would make me crash and on and on for years. \

I don't know how long.

I've never been stable yet except for briefly, 13 years later.

It wasn't any one episode that led me to bipolar treatment, just a developing awareness that something wasn't right and an excellent website that I read and said aloud "I am bipolar". And so I was. I left my horrible psychiatrist then and went to a mood disorders clinic with an expert in bipolar leading it and that led to being in a clinical trial for lamictal along with a definite diagnosis.