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Evidence has poured in recently that supports the role of rumination in producing the sex differences in depression. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema of Stanford University, who originated the rumination theory, has led the way in testing it.

Martin E.P. Seligman • Learned Optimism

This implies that men and women experience mild depression at the same rate, but in women, who dwell on the state, the mild depression escalates; men, on the other hand, dissolve the state by distracting themselves, by action or perhaps by drinking it away.

Martin E.P. Seligman • Learned Optimism

Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's mental distress. In 1998, Nolen-Hoeksema proposed the Response Styles Theory .[1][2], which is the most widely used conceptualization model of rumination. However, other theories, have proposed different definitions for rumination. For example, in the Goal Progress Theory , rumination is... See more

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema • Rumination (psychology)

Women are twice as likely to suffer depression as men are, because on the average they think about problems in ways that amplify depression.

Martin E.P. Seligman • Learned Optimism

So analyzing and wallowing in emotion when distressed seems a likely explanation for why women are more depressed than men.

Martin E.P. Seligman • Learned Optimism

Low mood increases any self-criticism or self-attack that we already do.

Dr Julie Smith • Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?: The Sunday Times bestseller, with over 1 million copies sold

Many functions have been suggested for low mood or depression, including communicating a need for help, signaling yielding in a hierarchy conflict, fostering disengagement from commitments to unreachable goals, and regulating patterns of investment. A more comprehensive evolutionary explanation may emerge from attempts to identify how the... See more

(PDF) Is Depression an Adaptation?

research shows the opposite: in fact, brooding reduces our ability to solve problems; and it’s absolutely hopeless for dealing with emotional difficulties.

Prof. Mark Williams • Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

“[...] I am quite the fan of Professor Randolph Nesse’s theory of depression. Nesse and his colleagues speculate that depression could act as a biological constraint system that helps to minimise wasted effort and loss by forcing the individual to slow down, reassess, and potentially change strategies.”