Depression Changes the Lens You See the World Through
In this brief conversational excerpt, licensed clinical social worker Shari B. Kaplan explains how depression reshapes a person’s perceptual lens. She describes a tendency for depressed individuals to project their internal misery onto others, assuming everyone is as unhappy as they feel, which erodes empathy. Kaplan emphasizes that this distortion often originates from a medical or physiological trigger that initiates a cascade of negative thoughts, creating a self‑reinforcing loop where the initial cause (e.g., illness, hormonal change) fuels depressive cognition, which in turn sustains the depressive state. The dialogue highlights the paradox that the very act of projecting misery deepens the depressive experience, making it harder to connect with others and perpetuating the cycle.
