To my mind, living causes brain damage. Each time cells regenerate some will mutate, mostly this is very minor and unimportant but sometimes it is catastrophic causing disease or permanent structural changes. This happens throughout our lifetime, it is called ageing. Some substances and lifestyle choices are known to accelerate the process drastically, while eating better, exercising more, avoiding alcohol, tobacco etc can help slow down ageing.

I don't know whether anti-depressants cause brain damage or not and even if they do is the risk any greater than any of the other risk factors that are out there? My question to anyone who fears that anti-depressants may be harmful is do you avoid alcohol, tobacco, street drugs, pesticides, antibiotics, otc remedies, herbal remedies (often the provenance of these is unknown), sugar, fat, artificial sweetners, etc, etc, etc? If not, why not because they can all be harmful?

I'm not saying don't be suspicious of what you choose to put into your body, but for me the benefits of anti-depressants outweigh the risks.