Okay, setbacks! Compared to how you are coping now setbacks are pretty minor right. They come and they go and after a while they just become a little like a head ache. Sort of ho hum, you know they will pass The difference is that they become fewer and fewer if you don't dwell on them. How much you dwell on them dictates how often they will happen.
As for getting your old life back. You can't go back only forward. This condition you have now is part of the old life and will always be there just like every other memory you have, good and bad. Dealing with it is a little like dealing with embarrassing moments in your life. Forget them, you can't change them. I know it is not that easy. This does work though.
What you are trying for is to shut down the anxious moments as soon as they happen but if you are very tired and your guard is down then you need all the coping skills you will learn here to get through those moments.
These are not set backs but conditioning that comes from living with the present condition. They are also turning into core beliefs that are telling you things that are not true such as that you will not get better. Not true, you have every chance of living a normal life. And keep in mind life always has it's ups and downs.
Exposure is a two edged sword. It can help you build skills to cope or pushed to hard it can give you set backs. I prefer to use it as a test to see how well my coping skills are doing.
If you look at normal people you will see that they use all the coping skills you need to learn and probably used to use before this condition took over. They do it automatic and subconscious and although you can spot them, they don't usually notice they are doing it.
Distraction is one of the most common skills people use. That along with relaxation skills are coping skills we all use. CBT is conditioning that makes the use of them less necessary. How much less depends on how well you take to CBT.
Any thing to get your mind off unwanted thoughts works. Distractions can be any thing such as looking at the floor or out a window to counting. Reading licence plates in traffic, counting different coloured cars. Imagining the people in a lineup or lecture as different breeds of dogs. You pick it, only you can know what works for you. If this seems like cheating it isn't, it is coping till the CBT changes your thought patterns.
Davit.
