Is it at all possible (or safe) to pursue a pilot's license with a history of mental illness?
I have no medical degree, but I can give you some things to consider:
Even as a hobby, flying is at times a high stress environment. You must stay alert at all times, and the ability to maintain functionality even when all hell breaks loose is highly desirable. It's not all clear blue skies and three degrees of freedom. You got checkrides, new things to learn, old things to remember, and pretty much everything you do might end up badly.
You correctly point out that medication that effects cognitive capabilities is a strict no-go. As such, a history of using them might not exclude the possibility of ppl level medical certificate, but would require jumping through some hoops, with no guarantee of succes.
Any history of suicidal tendencies is pretty much a 100% no-go. Just a not, you do not mention this, but I'll let the cat out of the bag anyway.
Your anamnesis has quite a listing of various mental issues. You do realize this is a major obstacle, which is a good start. Loading high expectations on PPL licence would not serve your recovery well, but my non-expert opinion backed up by some real life examples is, that a person can shed even quite severe mental issues, and regain &amp; maintain &quot;full functionality&quot; without any medication.
In your case the minimum requirement would be a long period of stability. Be honest to yourself and do not push it. If you get on top of things naturally, you might be good to go for PPL in some point in future. But do not risk you mental health on it, not but pushing towards it, and not by hanging on to it if you get there. As I wrote in the beginning, flying is a high stress environment at times, and it can trigger all kinds of unexpexted reactions. There is absolutely no loss or shame in putting the safety of yourself and the others above your dreams.
Flying is so much fun it's hard to describe it, but there are many other things just as fun, even more so.
Dream big, but don't let your dreams run you, or they will ruin you.