Hello druh6sm,
I fully empathise.
I’ve also been doing the Guardian crosswords for about a year, and often struggle to get started. It also saps the confidence when after half an hour I’m proudly staring at the few clues I’ve managed to get, and then I see someone posts a message like “quite a gentle one today, all done over one cup of tea” :)
I particularly still struggle with the setters who use fiendishly convoluted combinations of wordplay, especially involving finding a synonym for part of the clue and then removing the last letter, or few letters. Some I fail to see how anyone could solve them based purely on the wordplay, but then I guess that’s all part of the challenge :)
Anyway, I’ll keep at it. I’m slowly getting used to some setters, but have to admit my heart sinks when some names appear :)