I was in the middle of a really bad low point (seems sometimes there are many per day) where I couldn't think anything about myself except negativity. I was repeating phrases like:

"I can't do _____ very well. I should just stop trying."
"I don't think I'm manipulative, but I know I really am."
"I should just stop trying to be happy. It's stupid."

Somehow my thought process broke enough to include the question:

"What if someone was raised to believe cats were inherently bad, manipulative, and/or malicious? That's what mom and dad taught you about yourself, right?"

Suddenly, I thought aloud "that's ridiculous, I love cats, cats are wonderful, always loving - at least, mine is. I'd never think that about my cat."

"Then why are you treating yourself this way? Look at this little ball of fur. She has a full food bowl, the whole forest to explore and she still comes running into the house as soon as you get home. Don't animals have a good sense of how people are?"

It worked very well at derailing the spiral. Anyone else have experience with this? 

Tl;dr: Was able to break an episode of self-hatred by asking myself if I would treat my kitty the same way. I thought "no, I would never."