Why does every setback feel like it might end me?

When every setback feels like it could be the end, it is exhausting, because you are living each ordinary problem as if it were a final one. That reaction usually is not about the setback in front of you. It is about a nervous system that has learned to sound the loudest alarm for everything, so a small stumble and a real disaster feel the same in your body. Here is something steadying. You have survived every setback so far. Every single one that once felt fatal, you are still here on the other side of. That is not luck. It is evidence. The feeling that this one will end you has been wrong every previous time, which does not prove it will always be wrong, but it does mean the feeling is not a reliable messenger. Next time a setback hits and the panic rises, ask one plain question: is this actually the end, or does it just feel that way? Then name the smallest next step you can take. Action shrinks a setback back to its real size. You have made it through everything so far, and you are more durable than the fear tells you.