I think your doubts about the usage of the term here are actually on the right track. What most people refer to when they talk about dissociative-induced-mania would actually be more accurately described as hypomania. A subtle but important difference.
I appreciate the input. Yeah, that's generally been my feeling, that even if there's something to the idea that dissociatives can induce genuine mania, it seems like most people would actually be using the term to describe hypomania instead. I definitely at least personally almost exclusively encounter people using it to describe something like "feeling like Superman" after the main effects wear off, in their own words. If people are talking about how great they feel in an even relatively rational way, I think there's a good chance they're at the level of hypomania rather than full-blown mania, if even that.
A lot of people experience hypomania which, in binges, can progress to true mania and psychosis, from dissos, yes. Some seem prone to it. Personally I have only experienced hypomania. But I have seen a number of people lose the plot.
Thanks for the perspective. Psychosis I don't doubt at all, and I do get that people experience heavy stimulation, and I'll give you that that's more of an answer to my original question, but I do think the point I've been trying to make about being very picky with the specific terminology with respect to the context of wanting them to be accepted as depression drugs stands.... I get that this is ironic given SSRIs being the standard, but I feel like calling it mania even if it's not exactly the same as bipolar disorder is a bad play by the community because if people think they can induce that kind of manic episode when being used for depression with any frequency, it's definitely going to make them look a lot less appealing, and I kind of just assumed that myself for a long time looking in from the outside simply because people were using the word mania. If the 'mania' they induce is something you can adjust for by simply lowering your dosage, for instance, then that's a very different and far more forgiving situation and calling it mania may be hurting their reputation far more than anticipated. But, like I said, I'm just kind of musing here as a mostly non-user. If they really do cause a bipolar disorder-like syndrome in some people then by all means call it that, but I still think at least some people seem to use the term too liberally.
I suffer from Bipolar 2 and have never been sent into mania or hypomania by 3-MeO-PCE, ketamine, or DMXE (Apparently near identical to MXE in effect).
In fact, ketamine has actually reduced hypomania for me in the past.
Only disso that has worsened mania for me was DXM cough syrup and that was only when mixed with antidepressants.
DXM is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor with high potency, so maybe there's something there. It's a pretty weird drug in general.
I appreciate the response. Honestly, I've wondered about that too because I have also heard of dissociatives being used effectively for bipolar depression too, which is odd if they really cause bipolar-like mania, although not impossible for a drug to do two opposite things depending on how it's used. I personally do think it seems likely that dissociatives at least usually do not cause specifically bipolar-like manic episodes, regardless of what one wants to call the state they do cause. They clearly can fuck someone up with chronic use nonetheless, but they're literally used to model schizophrenia in animals with chronic dosing, so it's not that surprising.
