I'm an alcoholic and I can stay sober until a manic episode. It's usually one day (binge drinking). Sometimes nothing bad comes of it except for my husband and son's disappointment. Other times, it ends up with me in jail or the ER. I wasn't diagnosed BP until June when I had another incident and it was bad. We couldn't figure what was going on. I'd be fine and then all **** would break loose. We figured out it was a BP cycle that would happen about 3-4 times a year. I would cycle between hypo-manic and depression, but the other times it would be full on mania.