I had a similar thing happen in my meditation practice early on, and gave it up for many years after because of the anxiety. I eventually got back to it and fou

I had a similar thing happen in my meditation practice early on, and gave it up for many years after because of the anxiety. I eventually got back to it and found a lot of insight from Thich Nhay Hanh’s translation of the Heart Sutra. My teacher likes to point out that encountering the extreme anxiety or dread is actually a good sign, that it’s a natural reaction of your ego or sense of self trying to protect itself. But it’s probably best to be working with a teacher when you’re at that point, just to avoid needless confusion and to move past that anxiety or fear. You also definitely want to accomplish something specific in your practice, namely to move past suffering. The first step of any formal meditation session is to bring up your motivation for sitting in the first place.