I guess that I should have placed a much heavier disclaimer on my post aside from "I believe..."

Now I believe that it is very factual that mental illness has deleterious effects on the brain. This is what I meant by 'researching the facts.'

The question of whether ADs are good, bad, better, or worse in this situation is no where near a solid answer or even a tenuous one.

My last comment about the AD not working was kind of a shrug: If OP's med is not working for mood than there's not much reason to think it could be working for a hypothesized 'neuro-protecting' factor. So even if there's a potential long term benefit, I don't see how OP can experience possible benefit if the med isn't keeping the illness at bay in the first place.

But otherwise, long term AD use to prevent relapse seems is how Psychiatrists prescribe them.