for me, I wasn't treated for my anxiety issues at first so it was really hard to find that 'sweet spot' so to speak, it was 4 years before I was given klonopin...what I notice is that anxiety is like putting gasoline on the episode fire and it expands exponentially. so what might have been a mild episode that I could deal with becomes a huge thing that has put me in the hospital once and come very close two other times. I was having episodes twice a year lasting about 3-4 months until I could get back to a 'normal'...functional is a better word...state. my understanding of new studies of bipolar is that even between major episodes we are still suffering some symptoms, mostly cognitive. although I have read that each subsequent episode of depression causes some damage to our brains. a huge reason to prevent the manias, esp for those of us who crash after the manic time.