The 90 Percent Recurrence Rate: To Clarify

A reader commented that he didn't believe the assertion by researchers, contained in the post before this, that bipolars have a 90 percent chance of symptom recurrence during their lives. The interesting thing is that the researchers even attributed that figure to another scientific study that made that assertion. Now what exactly is driving the 90 percent recurrence...heroin use? Natural recurrence? Who knows? But in my 17 years as a bipolar who's talked with and interviewed hundreds of people with the disorder, I have met only one person who claims that they had an episode, took meds and have never had an episode since. Kinda stunning, eh?