The "blank page panic" is paralyzing. How do you actually break the cycle?
There is this specific kind of anxiety that hits when you have a major essay due and you just sit there staring at a blinking cursor for hours. For me, it always starts with wanting to make the introduction perfect. I write one sentence, delete it, rewrite it, delete it again, and before I know it, three hours have passed and the document is still completely empty.
The longer it takes to start, the more the pressure builds up, and eventually, the panic just completely paralyzes your brain. At that point, you aren't even thinking about the topic anymore. You're just sitting there, completely exhausted from doing nothing, with a voice in your head screaming "honestly, just find someone to write my paper for me because I physically cannot do this."
I know the usual advice is "just write a bad first draft," but when the anxiety kicks in, my brain refuses to cooperate and treats a bad draft like a life-or-death failure. How do you guys actually trick your brain into typing that first paragraph when you're completely stuck in this loop?