I am so god damn proud of you all. Every week I read of wins and struggles and it’s exciting and inspiring following your langlearning journey.
Everytime I get frustrated I come back to the weekly discussion thread and get that small spark of motivation that helps me push through that next pit of despair :)
Sounds to me like you’ve made a great leap in your learning! It is indeed psychological and you aren’t taking any steps back. Realising where you are lacking is in itself a step forward!
Talking to yourself is something that I also try to do to practice German. A one-on-one conversation is stressful because you don’t want to always keep the other person waiting until you form a proper sentence structure in your head, but you yourself have time to listen to yourself until you get more comfortable :)