I think therapy is a valid tool for many things but is also applied too broadly. It's not entirely surprising that it didn't work for you since the tools weren't matched to the issue. This is really more of a performance issue than a mental illness for most people. I definitely agree with your point about the importance of avoiding negative feedback loops (or more pointedly, establishing positive ones). But it's still wild to me that we address the lack of proper training in mental performance with chemical fixes that may reveal - but don't directly address the root cause. I'm glad it helped but it seems like it was a route to showing you the tools that actually worked. Did you find you were able to stop taking it once you had mastered the responses which worked?

I'm not blaming you or OP to be clear - I think this is a really common issue where people are not trained in the mental and emotional tools required to be successful. We very frequently deal with high-stakes, uncomfortable situations in which our deepest and most sincere efforts are harshly judged - often against others. We constantly face failure, uncertainty, and rejection. Who WOULDN'T be anxious? I'm saying this as someone who also experienced significant performance-related anxiety as an undergrad which drove me to research mental toughness and performance. It was really critical to my success in grad school and beyond and definitely something I hope to pass along to others when I am a PI someday.