That’s not how any of that works. Mania does not come from some special “mania center” in the brain. It occurs from many parts of the brain not working correctly. There is no “part of the brain” to access here.
Yes but with today’s technology should we be able to mimic it within a safe dosage or something? No I may be lumping in a lot of errors. But if the “mania” can be accessed then, it bares worth questioning why we can’t do I artificially.
Mania comes at a cost (my friend’s grandfather was manic depressive). Drugs also boost short term function at the cost of long term effects and a refractory period.
The experience of mania, from the DSM
Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
Decreased need for sleep (e.g. feels rested after only 3 hrs sleep)
More talkative than usual, or pressure to keep talking
Flight of ideas or subjectively racing thoughts
Distractibilitv (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli), as reported or observed
Increase in goal directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation (i.e., purposeless non-goal directed activity)
Excessive involvement in activities with high potential for painful consequences (e.g unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions. foolish business investments)
The experience of amphetamine from Wikipedia:
At therapeutic doses, amphetamine causes emotional and cognitive effects such as euphoria, change in desire for sex, increased wakefulness, and improved cognitive control. It induces physical effects such as improved reaction time, fatigue resistance, decreased appetite, elevated heart rate, and increased muscle strength. Larger doses of amphetamine may impair cognitive function and induce rapid muscle breakdown. Addiction is a serious risk with heavy recreational amphetamine use, but is unlikely to occur from long-term medical use at therapeutic doses. Very high doses can result in psychosis, which rarely occurs at therapeutic doses even during long-term use. Recreational doses are generally much larger than prescribed therapeutic doses and carry a far greater risk of serious side effects.[1]^
[…]
Cognitive performance
In 2015, a systematic review and a meta-analysis of high quality clinical trials found that, when used at low (therapeutic) doses, amphetamine produces modest yet unambiguous improvements in cognition, including working memory, long-term episodic memory, inhibitory control, and some aspects of attention, in normal healthy adults;[93][94] these cognition-enhancing effects of amphetamine are known to be partially mediated through the indirect activation of both dopamine D1 receptor and α2-adrenergic receptor in the prefrontal cortex.[26][93] A systematic review from 2014 found that low doses of amphetamine also improve memory consolidation, in turn leading to improved recall of information.[95] Therapeutic doses of amphetamine also enhance cortical network efficiency, an effect which mediates improvements in working memory in all individuals.[26][96] Amphetamine and other ADHD stimulants also improve task saliency (motivation to perform a task) and increase arousal (wakefulness), in turn promoting goal-directed behavior.[26][97][98] Stimulants such as amphetamine can improve performance on difficult and boring tasks and are used by some students as a study and test-taking aid.[26][98][99] Based upon studies of self-reported illicit stimulant use, 5–35% of college students use diverted ADHD stimulants, which are primarily used for enhancement of academic performance rather than as recreational drugs.[100][101][102] However, high amphetamine doses that are above the therapeutic range can interfere with working memory and other aspects of cognitive control.[26][98]
Even caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant that may reduce fatigue and drowsiness.[11] At normal doses, caffeine has variable effects on learning and memory, but it generally improves reaction time, wakefulness, concentration, and motor coordination.[59][60] The amount of caffeine needed to produce these effects varies from person to person, depending on body size and degree of tolerance.[59] The desired effects arise approximately one hour after consumption, and the desired effects of a moderate dose usually subside after about three or four hours.[7]
Caffeine can delay or prevent sleep and improves task performance during sleep deprivation.[61] Shift workers who use caffeine make fewer mistakes that could result from drowsiness.[62]
Caffeine in a dose dependent manner increases alertness in both fatigued and normal individuals.[63]
A systematic review and meta-analysis from 2014 found that concurrent caffeine and L-theanine use has synergistic psychoactive effects that promote alertness, attention, and task switching; these effects are most pronounced during the first hour post-dose.[13]
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis found that acute caffeine intake can improve reaction time and accuracy for cognitive tasks. Increased dosages can further improve reaction time but lead to decreases in accuracy after specific intake thresholds are reached.[28]
In habitual users, however, tolerance develops rapidly; the perceived attention and alertness boost after overnight abstinence primarily reverses mild withdrawal deficits (fatigue, reduced concentration) rather than elevating performance above a true non-dependent baseline, consistent with the withdrawal-reversal hypothesis.[64][65]
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Now this is what I call knowledge bombing and the sheer amount of text is remarkable. Good job mate good job. This is what we are after is like having knowledge wars and you just sent a big ass missle to others to show how it is done. …no sarcasm in any of that. You deserve this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3UjJ4wKLkg
You’re talking about cocaine or meth or something like it. There are side effects and controlling the dosage over time is difficult.
Or just sleep deprivation, which can also eventually lead to mania, hallucinations.
Adderall is a quite effective stimulant with manageable side effects, it is also an amphetamine (dextroamphetamine) similar to methamphetamine. I suppose if you mixed that with phencyclidine (PCP) or lysergic acid (LSD) you could probably reliable induce a manic-like state.
Mr Good Idea right here. /s
I never said it was a good idea lmao it’s a horrible idea, but I guess the sarcasm doesn’t exactly translate over text
You need /s to indicate that, as per Poe’s law.
“From the brain” is basically like saying from this impenetrable black box.
Medications do not work the same on people with the same conditions. You could have exactly the same depression/anxiety symptoms as another person but have a completely negative reaction to an SSRI that works perfectly for them.
Some people with ADHD can still get high on certain stimulant meds if they take a high dose, but some (like me) don’t get anything but a headache.
For most people, drinking alcohol is a slightly euphoric experience that decreases inhibitions and makes them feel relaxed. For others (like me) it does nothing or it makes me anxious.
Now the physical effects do exist in that latter case; my heartrate and breathing do slow if I drink a lot. But the subjective experience is quite the opposite of what its “supposed” to be.
If you want to feel physically alert, injecting yourself with epinephrine would likely do the trick. But if you want to feel more “manic” as in lacking impulse control, feeling rapid emotional changes, and feeling alert. You likely need a cocktail of drugs specifically tuned for your brain.
There is no single part of the brain controlling anything. I mean literally anything. There are lots of areas that are involved with certain actions like the hippocampus with memory and V1 with visual input but there are basically no processes that are comtrolled solely by a specific part of the brain.
And what makes it even more complex is that every part of the brain is recieving different information from thousands of different neurons scattered across the whole neocortex. Some of these connections seem to follow a general trend, but if you’ve ever seen a rabies tracing experiment you’ll know that basically every part of the brain has at least one or two connections from any other part of the brain regardless of function.
Your brain is a chaotic mess and what little organization exists might not even be necessary. There are mice called Reeler Mice who lack a specific glycoprotein (reelin) which is responsible for organizing the brain into layers. As such, their neurons are scattered all around rather than forming the neat layers and patches that typical mice have. Guess what is wrong with these mice behaviorally? Nothing. apart from the motor issues caused by an undeveloped cerebellum (part of your brain that coordinates muscle movements) they are basically normal mice. (I should note there is some research on reelin levels and relation to psychiatric disorders, but its not well studied and inconclusive)
You could have a completely different brain than any other human on earth and still function like a normal human. There are people without a corpus collosum (the largest white matter tract in the brain, connecting both hemispheres) who are asymptomatic even though most people with the condition get seizures. There are parts of your brain that might not exist in others like the massa intermedia; and there are no signs whatsoever until you do a scan.
It is likely your brain is laid out in a unique way that is unlike any other human. Maybe it can carry out processes and emotions and actions the exact same way someone else’s does, but that does not mean both brains are doing that process in the same way. So it is never guaranteed that a drug or stimulation in a specific area which causes the desired effects on one person will cause the same effect on another.
And the more complex the desired outcome is (e.g. “mania” rather than just “alertness”) the less general your “solution” will be, meaning it will need to be tailored to each subject more specifically.
This is the biological intro to understanding neurodivergent theory.
I have tried to explain this very thing so often, you put it into words so much better then i ever have. Thank you!
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not normally, maybe from drugs you can, but you will have abnormal withdrawl effects. isnt thats why amphetamines are for and thier pharmalogical deratives. i dont think you can have manic phase with drugs though. because manic phase from bpd, usually comes with severe depression, some people have psychosis, or a co-condition like schizophrenia. i once followed a tuber that had manic and depressive phases, apparently the reason he was barely uploading was his “depression phase” followed by his manic phases, (uploading about his cotent which was very sparingly. after a few years, it was reported in the local news, and through another tuber, he took his own life in his depressive phase. it was mostly about pets/talking,not anything extreme.
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I mean yeah almost anybody can have a drug induced manic / psychotic episode (usually from stimulants), the threshold and how long it takes to get there and the eventual severity are just different for each person. Technically it’s supposed to be a different diagnostic classification if it’s drug induced vs organic but realistically psychiatrists will just slap ‘schizoaffective’ on pretty much any chart and call it a day.
As for inducing an episode… So what makes a mental health diagnosis a mental health diagnosis vs a normal neuro/behavioral variation is literally detriment / impairment to everyday living. So if you’re inducing one you’re accepting that even with, say, a hypomanic episode, there’s some kind of detriment. Usually the main one is that the person becomes a huuuge asshole, but there’s other stuff that can still even get the person committed, usually after royally fucking up their life and relationships.
Now, some people need that little extra dopamine for their brain to work right (ADHD). They’re also risking mania / psychosis when taking stimulants but the risk is usually minimal at the doses they’re taking and it’s worth it for them to be able to hold down a job and keep up with self care tasks. You wouldn’t want to risk it otherwise and there’s a small subset of people with ADHD who are much more prone to mania / psychosis that can’t take stimulants at all who have to take very specific combinations of other stuff.
TLDR everything has risks and benefits and that’s such a narrow tightrope to walk for no reason and “what if I just microdose” are the famous last words of literally every meth addict ever.
Yeah, and you probably have. All sorts of people have the kinds of experiences manic people report – staying up late into the night to work on something creative, feeling at one with the universe, feeling powerful or unstoppable, having deeply moving religious or spiritual experiences, being extremely irritable or angry. But eventually you are able to stop and return to a baseline state when the negative consequences grow too intense, instead of spiraling out of control for weeks or months, which is the crucial difference.
You like playing games with fire do ya?
You have no idea…want me to take a pick of all my scars from self inflicting?
No
Why not?
Provided there aren’t too many protective factors you could maybe trigger it with a few years of amphetamine abuse and a few traumatic experiences. /s
No, seriously. Bipolar disorder is not a good thing. Triggering mania most certainly would come with a hefty dose of debilitating depression as a side effect.
