Hello.
I am sure that you understand the symptoms of depression from your own basis of research. Depression can be caused due to various factors and like any other illness it has its own symptoms. It is very important to treat depression so that it does not impact your other areas of life, treatment at the earliest is the best.
Medication and counseling can be two ways of dealing with depression. Medication helps you to be in the mindset to deal with the issue or rather gives you the motivation to deal with the actual cause or reason for depression. Counseling helps the person to talk about the reason that caused depression and help the person to deal with the same. To answer your question, Yes medication do tend to help.
Next Steps
Meeting a psychiatrist would definitely help to understand whether medication or counseling is required to deal with the depression.
Health Tips
As much as you can try to share your feelings with someone you trust, it is very important that the person does not bottle up the feelings and thoughts. Sharing with somebody you love and trust can help.