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.
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
18 points (87.5% liked)
Ask Science
17837 readers
34 users here now
Ask a science question, get a science answer.
Community Rules
Rule 1: Be respectful and inclusive.
Treat others with respect, and maintain a positive atmosphere.
Rule 2: No harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or trolling.
Avoid any form of harassment, hate speech, bigotry, or offensive behavior.
Rule 3: Engage in constructive discussions.
Contribute to meaningful and constructive discussions that enhance scientific understanding.
Rule 4: No AI-generated answers.
Strictly prohibit the use of AI-generated answers. Providing answers generated by AI systems is not allowed and may result in a ban.
Rule 5: Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Adhere to community guidelines and comply with instructions given by moderators.
Rule 6: Use appropriate language and tone.
Communicate using suitable language and maintain a professional and respectful tone.
Rule 7: Report violations.
Report any violations of the community rules to the moderators for appropriate action.
Rule 8: Foster a continuous learning environment.
Encourage a continuous learning environment where members can share knowledge and engage in scientific discussions.
Rule 9: Source required for answers.
Provide credible sources for answers. Failure to include a source may result in the removal of the answer to ensure information reliability.
By adhering to these rules, we create a welcoming and informative environment where science-related questions receive accurate and credible answers. Thank you for your cooperation in making the Ask Science community a valuable resource for scientific knowledge.
We retain the discretion to modify the rules as we deem necessary.
For answers to historical questions, please check out our sister community: !askhistorians@lemmy.world
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
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.
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.
I am not a scientist...
But science has figured this out. It's called cocaine. It's amazing
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.
No
Why not?
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?