Psychotherapy - yes? no? maybe later?

I have been under treatment for major depression for over a year.  The treatment has been exclusively pharmacological in nature.  It has not involved any "talk therapy" beyond the 15-20 minute medication check for which I see a psychopharmacologist once a month.

When I first started receiving treatment, I know I wasn't "up" to participating in psychotherapy.  In the early months, I could hardly speak at all when I would see the doctor, and, for his part, he didn't recommend or even mention psychotherapy.  Interestingly, although the medications I'm taking have been allowing me to feel a bit more at ease in his office, he still hasn't recommended psychotherapy.

I know that medications alone cannot solve all my problems (or can they?), and I remember, from a long-ago "failure" at  psychotherapy with a different doctor, how off-balancing and frustrating that experience was for me. Yet my problems remain, and they trouble me.

So what do I do?  Wait till the doctor advises p'therapy, if he ever does?  Ask for it?  Forget about it entirely?  How do I determine what kind of help I need from here on out?  How does my doctor?

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

I strongly recommend psychotherapy. All the research, and all of my personal experience, says what you are saying, medication alone can make you feel better but it doesn't solve the problems that are bothering you. I would aggressively seek therapy. Ask the psychopharmacologist for a referral..or some other person you trust. You can start the process online by using the Mastering Stress program above to begin to nail down and objectify the problems that have to be addressed.