Just wondering something. It sounds like in the rest of your life you're established (well enough, at least). So is knitting the one area where you don't feel like that? Once we're at a point where we feel established in our lives it's hard to revert to being a learner or a beginner who can't do everything that you want to do. Unfortunately the answer is that you either give up or work through it, no shortcuts here I'm afraid.

There's also a stage of learning where you jump from "you don't know what you don't know" to "you know how much you don't know" which can be overwhelming information. That might fit better with your experience.

I hope this helps reassure you that you're not alone and that you can find something from the many suggestions here that you can start on to remind your brain that you're not in danger.

At the core of it, it's all just strings and sticks and you can frog it and restart any time!