I'll tell you some thoughts I have. They are opinions, and not everyone would agree with me.

I am leery of a therapist who tells you to ignore your doctor's recommendation. Actually, that's unprofessional. I think you should follow through on your GPs direction. Your GP should give you a referral to a specific psychiatrist. Psychiatrists do two things: they diagnose, and they prescribe medication. I, myself, do not place a ton of faith in a diagnosis developed by a therapist. I believe in leaving diagnosing to doctors.

The federal government holds to the same standard, and won't grant disability social security on the strength of a diagnosis from a therapist. Having said that, diagnosing is not an exact science. A psychiatrist told me that it can take quite a while to know a patient well enough to come to a firm diagnosis. Initial diagnoses are "provisional/tentative." I know someone who was sent by a federal court to be diagnosed by a PhD psychologist. The psychologist spent 48 hours interviewing and testing the person, paid for by the federal government. I read the psychologist's report. It was thorough and persuasive. It rejected a diagnosis this person had been given for the previous 20 years. If you get seen by 3 different psychiatrists, it's possible to get three different diagnoses, though not usually. Also, having a psychiatric problem doesn't necessarily constitute "being mentally ill." What constitutes "mental illness" can be a matter of philosophical debate among thoughtful people. I happen to think it requires very serious difficulty coping with the demands of life . . . to the point of being somewhat incompetent. (If a person is competent to babysit children, then I'ld be slow to call that person mentally ill.) Many psychologists say that we have become too quick to "medicalize" problems of living. Another thing I've noticed is that what diagnosis a doctor gives you can be affected by whether the doctor likes, or dislikes you.

I think, if you've been dealing with considerable emotional distress for a good length of time, and you seem to have some chronic impediment to getting your life situated in a way you feel reasonably content with, then an assessment by a psychiatrist can be a sensible thing to get. As you say, it can be a source of validation. It doesn't have to be carved in stone and shouldn't be thought of as such. It's a place to start to organize a remedy to your difficulty.

The "remedy" will usually involve a mixture of things. One thing might be medication. Sometimes only a trial of various meds can tell you whether, or not, medication might be helpful. Sometimes meds don't help. I think medication is over-rated and over-used. Prescribing it is the main way that pdocs make money. Patients tend to like getting medication because, I think, most people would rather believe they have a "chemical imbalance of the brain," rather than an approach to life that isn't working for them. You not being real disposed toward taking meds is, IMO, a healthy attitude. But keep an open mind.

Often, psychiatric problems tend to come in clusters. They mutually aggravate each other. That's why, more and more, you see people being given multiple diagnoses.

Besides believing that medication is over-rated, I also believe that therapy is over-rated. Patterns of behavior are extremely hard to change. But it can feel supportive to have a counselor.

So I would say: go for a consult with a psychiatrist. Listen to a variety of opinions, besides just the opinion of one therapist.