I grew to love and appreciate myself but it was not always this way.
I definitely hated myself, but it wasn't actually necessary for me to stop hating myself to stop drinking.
The healing came a little later
What I had to believe in, initially at least, was that I really could live (at least for a little while) with my messed up screwed up self sober, and that my self hatred might not be nice to live with but it would not consume me.
I had to be sober to start to work on that stuff, because alcohol fuelled it.
D