Hold onto neuroplasticity: this isn't permanent
Your brain physically rewires its structure with every interaction and place, so the depressed/addicted person you are now is not a fixed identity — a different version of you will eventually show up. Two framings that carry it: depression is weather and you are the sky; a breakdown is breaking open the radio to see how it works.
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The brain physically changes structure in response to stimuli over time, which makes the present mental state impermanent rather than fixed identity. As a concrete fact to hold onto, neuroplasticity can be life-saving: you literally won’t stay this person — someone else will eventually show up — so it’s a reason to stay around for who you’re going to be.
Two framings make the impermanence felt. The sky-and-cloud picture: depression is a dark cloud, but you are the sky — you contain the problem, so you are always bigger than it, and the weather will shift; wait for the clouds to move rather than believing the depression’s claim that it is everything. And the breakdown-as-radio reframe: normal functioning hides how your mind works, but a crisis breaks the radio open and forces you to see the internal parts and wiring — awful, but it hands you a repair manual for your own mind, so you understand how to fix it when things go wrong again. A breakdown becomes a forced learning experience, not only a catastrophe.
