Is a full recovery even possible? Overcoming despair

Ah, but here's the caveat: regardless of how "healthy" a person is mentally, the unconscious processes of the brain have a tremendous impact on our actions, and this impact is something we are unaware of.
The purpose of commercials in general is to get you to buy something, and there has been a lot of psychological manipulation that has been implemented in these advertisements. If you ever find yourself suddenly drawn to a product or specific brand, and you're not sure why, chances are it is your unconscious that picked something up in the environment your conscious processing was unaware of. Regardless of any addictions, what your visual processing picks up has an influence on you.
As far as sexual stimuli having an impact on your conscious processing, I have read a lot of stories on here from men who have progressed in their recovery say that sexual stimuli doesn't impact them to the extent that it once did. So if they're watching a movie and something comes on that would be triggering in the beginning stages of recovery, it is no longer triggering in later stages of recovery. So eventually, providing you do what is necessary for recovery, the stimuli will not have as much impact on you the further you progress.

There are two ways you can go with therapy in this context. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on what happened in the past and allows you to work through things in a safe environment with guidance. Metacognitive therapy focuses on the here and now, and instead helps you break free of the ruminating stages that lead you back toward depression or anxiety. Metacognitive therapy has been shown to be more effective with addiction related problems, however, both are effective for depression and anxiety. Both of these techniques can help you with fear-based reactions. Metacognitive therapy is unfortunately, not available in the US if that is where you live, but is available in the UK. If you live in the US and want to read about metacognitive therapy, there is a book you can get
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/Meta...sionAdrian-Wells/1124390708?ean=9781606238165

It provides some steps that you can do yourself. However, I would also recommend doing therapy as well just because it can help you treat the whole system of thinking, especially if your depression is debilitating.

This is very true. It can be compared to training for a marathon. If you go buy the shoes, the athletic clothes, but never train, when the time comes you'll likely back out of the marathon. Your motivation to start training dwindling over time with the, I will start tomorrow, mindset. However, it is often said that sometimes there isn't any motivation to start, but if you start anyway, then the motivation will follow. You have to make yourself do what needs to be done, and this is especially difficult for an addict because your motivation has been focused on your substance of choice. Making a daily schedule and forcing yourself to complete it will really help with the rewiring aspect.

It isnt easy for sure, but I can't say I am deserving of any respect for it because I did go back on my word a few times during my husbands recovery and I did tell him I couldn't do it anymore while giving him back my wedding ring several times. This was mostly because of the constant state of "fight or flight" I was in started to cause some pretty horrible physical symptoms that were debilitating and disabling. It literally almost killed me.
What us SO's go through was something I had not researched so my treatments didn't start until after his relapse this last August. What we experience is a form of PTSD, which is why we are in a constant state of fight or flight. My husband is fully aware that if he relapses again, we are done. My body physically, can not handle going through the stress of it all again.

I did start trauma therapy for myself, and also started meditation as well. The therapy was a good place to vent things out and think things over but it didn't stop the triggers I experienced, which would get so bad that I would go blind in one eye. What helped those was Isha Krya meditation.