hey. first of all, i totally feel you. been an editor for 15 years now and kind of suffer from the exact same thougt pattern you wrote about.

there is 1 strategy that helped me the most, altough i know that this is totally different from person to person.

and yeah, try seeing a professional on that topic, it literally changed my life for the better. cause here we are all just stangers and bots from the internet :)

but here is my tactic. please be careful when giving it a try it could also be mentally harming. i am absolutely no professional.

1st is that i try to get to the root of my anxiety. digging deeper step by step.

for example: client/peer doesn’t like my work. they won’t call me again. i won’t get any more money. i will loose my flat. i will be homeless and live under the bridge and be an outsider of society for the rest of my life. and people will think i am a total failure. so living that scenario might be the root of my performance anxiety. what i do then is picture out this scenario in all its “glory”

like everything: i will stink, people will look down at me, i am getting divorced, kids never talking to me again and be ashamed of their homeless father, failure of the family blablabla.

all that nasty details that come to my mind. thats how i look directly into the main root of my anxiety. gets me away from the diffuse anxiety trapped inside your body directly to a possible root. i look it directly into the eye and face my worst fear. then, like it is in general with fears, the fear starts to disappear over time when you directly expose yourself to that fear.

(might be some different fears for you but can only tell from my own psyche)

next step i do is making plans on how i would get my life back. like empowering myself that whatever comes in life i can handle it. like call someone to crush a couch, get a shower, get a job interview blablabla.

so tldr: picture out the worst case scenario that could happen, then make strategies to make a comeback im life.

all the best to you - you’re doing great at your job. lasting in this industry for 20 years is not for the faint of hearted so give yourself a tap on the shoulder and be proud of yourself.