[pknomad]

You're absolutely right that a therapy isn't THE solution to depression but I feel like it's a good starting point. A good therapist should be able to recognize if OP should be seeing a psychiatrist who then can prescribe the appropriate medication for managing his/her condition.

[caddemon]

A halfway decent psychiatrist will also handle therapist referral. I don't see any issue with seeing a psychiatrist first, it's not like they just automatically hand out a prescription. It's actually way more common to see GPs do that for depression in the US.

That said, OP should probably look into both himself, see what the wait time and cost differences are between the two routes in his area.

[boucher]

One possibly significant difference is that psychiatrists tend to charge a lot more.