We study the energy cascade problematic for some nonlinear Schrödinger equations on \({\mathbb{T}^2}\) in terms of the growth of Sobolev norms. We define the notion of long-time strong instability and establish its connection to the existence of unbounded Sobolev orbits. This connection is then explored for a family of cubic Schrödinger nonlinearities that are equal or closely related to the standard polynomial one \({|u|^2u}\). Most notably, we prove the existence of unbounded Sobolev orbits for a family of Hamiltonian cubic nonlinearities that includes the resonant cubic NLS equation (a.k.a. the first Birkhoff normal form).