For those of you with bipolar, I hope you can help me out. I have a lot of questions about it, and reading articles isn't really helping. I would like to get first hand perspectives of how the disease progresses.

I want to know if you had an emotional trauma, I realize that it will probably trigger a manic/hypomanic or depressive stage, but does it cause you to cycle quicker? Is it temporary, or are you on a new more volatile level. If it's temporary, how long does it last?