My therapist: what would you tell someone else going through what you are going through? Me: that they don't have to feel this way, and that they deserve to feel okay, and that I'm here to love and support them. My therapist: Right. So ... ? Me: we've been through this. I'm different.

The analogy I use is that when you're depressed it feels like you have the clearest possible view of yourself, in much the same way that you have the clearest possible view of a well when you're stuck in the bottom

Yup. “everything is awful and irredeemable and will never change” is exactly as false as “everything is perfect and beautiful and will never change”