It's not that I'm afraid of losing my intelligence--I'm afraid of losing my pleasure. That even though there are those brief moments like you said where the rate at which the glucocorticoids kill the neurons responsible for pleasure becomes greater than the rate those neurons gain through the medication, that these brief moments will all add up to some loss (some shrinkage).

So will these brief moments all add up to some shrinkage over time (like a couple days, or even a week's worth of shrinkage or even longer), or will the medication constantly make up and surpass all these brief moments of neuron loss, resulting in those feel-good regions of the brain gaining neurons and not shrinking for a couple days or longer despite the fact that my depression is chronic and lasts all day everyday (although there are moments where I feel somewhat alright through these medications)?