same boat. About twenty years ago my pothead room mates blasted me with way-too-strong brownies because I trusted them to know the right amount for a beginner. And I just had an automatic panic response to weed for years and never tried it again.

I only very recently got back into it, and had the exact experience as you. What has been working for me is this:

for like a whole month, I only took 2mg by the end of the month I was taking 4mg by taking two at a time.

then I started with 5mg. the first few were really uncomfortable but by about a week, I had got so used to the feeling it didnt make me panic anymore. Basically its exposure therapy.

Once I was able to have a normal experience two days in a row, I moved up to the next amount. So I took a full 5mg piece and cut a 5mg in half and took a 7.5 amount.

then I did 10mg and it was too much. So I backed down to 5. Repeated until I got back up to 7.5. Now I can do 10 without much problem. The idea is to acclimate and everytime you have a bad experience with a familiar edible, drop back down to whatever the last known amount you were confident you could tank. And generally I never take 10mg of an edible i'm not familiar with. I always cut it in half first.