This. So much this. I had a horrible understanding of mania until I met someone who had really bad bipolar and was going through an intense manic phase. Most people think it means going through ups and downs in quick succession and that is not at all what it's like.

Stupidly one of the best learning experiences I had of mania was very idiotically taking an eyeball dose of a PCP analogue ( which is should never have bought, honestly) and having about 8-10 hours of mania that didn't end until like 4-5am. By the end I was actually really miserable because I had realized I'd been so fucked up (more than any other drug I'd ever done or tried) and as my cognition returned to normal I felt a lot of shame over realizing how irresponsible I'd been, especially because my friends were around and saw how delusional I was. Shit went straight into the toilet after that.

I guess doing it controlled and having a trip sitter would've been interesting but honestly I would suggest anyone to stay away from any drug that has that tendency. I literally thought the world had collapsed to a singularity at one point and that I was actually god and had to remake the planet (at least I remember having some deep Marxist feelings of making things right)