[bumbledraven]

Regardless of your own history, regarding the OP's experience purely as a cycle seems unduly pessimistic. What if it's more like sine wave with a positive slope? After all, OP changed his personality and lifestyle in important ways.

[Myrcurial]

If I wasn't unduly optimistic, I'd be institutionalized by now. My suggestion to the OP was that periods like he described have happened for me as well -- in retrospect, they were "remission-like" incidents. When the first one crashed back into full blown, I went from "the usual depressed" to something much darker. When I had another remission period, I was elated but aware that "all good things must end" and I enjoyed every damn minute of it. Right now, I'd love a period of remission, it would make a SIGNIFICANT difference in my day-to-day.

My hope for the OP and my intention in writing was to encourage him to have some psychic cushion for the potential of a return to strongly symptomatic existence. The only constant is change.