[Ralau]

During the past year I've had two manic episodes and two depressive episodes.
The first depressive episode lasted about 4 months and I recovered quite quickly when my meds got changed. I got a manic swing soon after that due to drinking and not taking my meds regularly. It didn't last long, maybe 2 weeks: first I was just euphoric, later I could barely sleep at all and was paranoid, got many ideas, talked so quickly that other people couldn't understand and felt just horrible.

After the short period of elevated mood I slipped into severe depression and ended up hospitalized. I couldn't function normally, I just stared at one spot and could speak only few words at a time. I felt very slow, I walked very slowly and ate very slowly and my legs felt so heavy. After a week I got back my ability to speak normally and my legs started feeling less heavy. They increased my dose and after two weeks my mood started improving and I got back home after about 1,5 months of hospitalization.

Now I can function much better than when I was depressed, but I get tired very easily. I still sleep quite much (9-13h). When I was severely depressed I could sleep for 16 hours. I'm functional but my mood is often lowish and I feel constantly tired. The tiredness isn't that bad anymore all the time, but I feel like I'm not completely myself. It feels like I'm only 70% or 80% of what I could be.

I know everyone is different, but how long does it take from you to recover completely from a depressive episode? Will it ever get better, or should I just be glad that I've got this far?

I'd have different answers for different depressive episodes and other circumstances like what meds I had been (or were) on and the length of the depression, and if I had been bombarded with numerous episodes because of the kindling effect. The longer and more severe my course, the longer it took for me to recover "heal".

[~Christina]

Over my life I’d say 6 weeks to 8 months. No rhyme or reason really.

[Sunflower123]

From my experience...days to months. It can get better. Hang in there.

[pirilin]

Don't wanna poop in ur party, however, Mine took three years.

Anything less than that consider yourself lucky.

Cheers.