[mossanimal]

What is the longest period of either depression or mania that people experience?

I feel like the first manic episode I had lasted a few years before I crashed into depression... and then long period of normalcy. The mania was probably hypo. And now I feel like the same thing has happened... my behavior is so different compared to how I've been acting for the last 4 years. Extreme enthusiasm, projects galore, followed by anxiety due to getting into various troubles, volatility, emotionally shutting down, impulses out of control. I don't do those things now .. and I didn't act that way before the point at which I think I went manic leading to current problems.

Anyway.... just wondering if other people have experienced this longer term stuff.

Longest depression that I'm aware of was about a year and longest period of hypo/mania was about a year. Those were tough times. During mania I'm like a ping pong ball, bouncing around with fury and even the breath of a snail could have enough momentum to ping pong me into absurdity......with depression that ping pong ball is filled with lead and it takes an act of God to get me to move.

[Guiness187055]

Longest depression about 8 months. Longest hypomanic about 1 year leading up to 1 very destructive full on manic episode.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Is it bad I don't really know? Depression can last months. My mania tends to be shorter but barrels deep in depression.

[UpDownAround]

Depression? Maybe 18 months. Hypomania - a little over 2 months and counting is the most but that is current and at a level I am good with. The upward spikes that are not so good in the past were usually only 5 or 6 days and I don't think I ever went more than 2 weeks. For nearly 25 years until about 2 months ago my cycle was depression for months (often over a year) interrupted by brief hypomanic episodes. I do not know this stability of which many people speak. That's why I am very pleased with current meds keeping me slightly hypomanic.

[franz kafka]

Mania, 1.5-2 months. Depression, 4-5 months.

[mossanimal]

Thanks folks... Well my diagnosis is still new (1 year) so I'm just trying to figure things out. It could be that the first mania that I'm referring to (when I was 25... now I'm 45) only lasted 8-9 months or whatever. This was the period in which I seemed to have exhibited manic behavior .. obsessive running, impulsively quitting my doctorate to run off to California, changing pretty much everything about myself. During that period I spent so much money, prostitutes, surfing, climbing, lost my job, etc, etc. So I'm just looking back more at behavior. The periods of depression were so much more clear in retrospect. And there was no doubt that I settled down for quite sometime and got pretty stable... until I moved out here to northern Wisconsin... and things have fallen apart again.

The more I think about it... the thought of having such long manic periods doesn't make sense.

[Sunflower123]

Depression - years with a handful of ok days. No hypomania. Doing really well on my current combination. Been feeling stable for two weeks.

[sonjaward809]

My longest manic episode was 6 months, this whole time was very destructive for me and my longest depressive episode was also 6 months, I ended up hospitalized towards the end of it due to dangerous thoughts. I haven't had a manic episode in a little over a year, I lean more towards the depressive side.

[cashart10]

Mania lasts greater than half a year. Depression lasts greater than 2 years. That is my longest.

[~Christina]

Hypo ? 2 + years, Manic 4-5 months.

Depressed 6-8 months

[Unrigged64072835]

Hypo/manic--for about six months. Depression was about a year.

[scatterbrained04]

My first episode of depression lasted 3 years

[Greenfish77]

I had 4 years of abnormal depression before a couple month hypomanic episode, followed by progressively shorter manic epiosodes for about a year before getting treatment. My shortest ones right before treatment were about half a day long.