I was taken off ADs when I was diagnosed and kept off them for a few years until I was a little more stable but still depressed. Then we tried them with mood stabilizers, sticking to low doses and avoiding SSRIs which had always made me manic in the past. After trial and error we found that I can be on them with appropriate adjustments to my mood stabilizers and adjustments to the AD doses when my mood goes up. So it's a balancing act but necessary and it works for me.