I think you have hit on something really key to recovery.

I had a really bad day yesterday. I was so depressed I couldn't escape the thoughts of self loathing. The flash memories of loathsome acts etc. They just kept flooding at me in waves. Often I hear myself talk trying to console myself. Trying to flip the story to look or sound or feel better. Trying to tell myself I am not as aweful as I think I am. etc etc. You know the talk I am sure.

Anyways it hit me that while I was battling for control over my thoughts, trying to stop the dialogue, trying to reframe the messages, I decided to accept that my self hating voice was right. I have done all of those horrible things and more. I am not going to debate the degree of shame I should feel. I am going to accept that the shame I feel is real and justified. Just accept it.

A funny think happened. As soon as I did that this weight of hopelessness lifted. I hear myself say, 'Okay. I will accept your version of things. I have reason to feel shame for things of the past. I can't change the past. But I can effect the future. I can be who I want to be from this moment forward. I can clean the slat. I can give my best me another chance. Its a new day.

Then something else happened. I began to think positively about my potential for the new days ahead. I wasn't being bogged down by flashes from the past. I wasn't entertaining my distortions. I wasn't giving up.

I can't change the past. I can't even accurate pull up the past let alone be objective about anything I may have said or did that I regard to be loathsome out of the past. Even yesterday is blurred by my emotional interpretations.

I woke today without the weight of depression holding me down. It was a good day of just being at peace with all of me. The timing could be coincidental but I think it follows along what you are saying about acceptance vs analysis.