Thanks all, and you are right that the illness is chronic. I realize that, however much I would like to deny it.

However, what I meant is that my episodes didn't use to be this frequent, and I'm still hopeful that with the right kind of stability in my life I could go back to how it used to be, with only a few episodes per year and months of stable mood in between.

What I meant to ask was whether there's a chance of that happening, or whether rapid cycling is more likely to recur if it has happened once. I.e. is this deterioriation likely to be permanent? In any case, if I do go off meds after a while I'll make sure it's with the approval and monitoring of my PDoc.