Have you tried keeping comms off and treating the other players as robots; detaching any real human interaction. I like to pretend that everyone is getting along and having a good time. Silly robots.
As someone that used to be sensitive I would suggest a few mental tricks to try.
#1 Would you take a racists word seriously? No, and you shouldn’t take everyone’s word seriously. If they are bad people, treat what they say as human trash and don’t acknowledge it, they don’t deserve it.
#2 Realize that you have intrinsic worth as a person and that nobody can take that away from you.
#3 Basically got to learn how and when to turn off the empathetic part of your brain, best way to do that is to approach the situation like a troll, it desensitizes you to the negative behavior and teaches you to devalue speech that truly isn’t deserving of human decency. Easy and quick way to do that, say LOL to ANYTHING they say, and if you’re on coms just laugh, don’t say anything else.
This is the internet, people treat each other here HORRIBLY, don’t take it personal, the human body isn’t capable of doing that, that’s why its eating at you so much.
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To be honest, team games like this or League are really really really bad for mental. If you really like it … keep playing but otherwise, I would quit for a month and see how it goes.
Specially if you can play other more individual impactful games.
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Don’t play multiplayer games. Play single player games. I recently replayed the Mass Effect trilogy. I also like martial art fighting games like Mortal Kombat, Tekken, or Dead or Alive. Play Minecraft. Hey buy classic arcade bundle and play Pac-Man if you want. Single player games. No multiplayer ones.
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OW is a team-based game but in some cases, you need to turn the chats off, pretty much all of them. Disable VC and just do what you want, the ping system coming with OW2 will help immensely for people who want to play with the team but can’t ‘deal’ with others just being rude and all that. Also, I imagine PvE will be a significantly less toxic environment to play in when we finally get it next year.
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Anyway, my two cents as someone who is/was also sensitive:
I used to get easily upset, mostly because I felt I had something to prove. I felt if people didn’t perceive me as good then I was stupid, or slow or any of the other self-doubts that come with that territory.
Eventually I realized some things;
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When people lash out like that they are embarrassing themselves. I would rather be or appear to be bad at the game, any game, than act like that. It shows far more about that person than your skill at a game or what they think of you. They are making assumptions, assertions, and extrapolations to make themselves feel better or to vent their frustration (inappropriately), while at the same time giving direct evidence of being a poor human.
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My ability in a game does not dictate my worth as a person.
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Once I started to firmly believe those two things I was able to find enjoyment even in those situations. It bloomed over everything, whether is was playing well or poorly, or someone thought I was playing poorly. Of course I still get frustrated from time to time but in my opinion that works on a scale of intensity, and as long as I remember #2, and rely on things like being open, happily, to self improvement and admission of my faults while being cheerful to acknowledge and work on them and not let them anchor me down then I am good to go.
I know it can be hard not to tie your worth to some things, but I promise you it’s the most confident, freeing feeling when the day comes that you realize you CAN shove those people and their words aside, because they are silly little clowns who we can dismiss, because they invalidate themselves the moment they act this way… like some of the commenters in this very thread.
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I’m kinda the opposite tbh. I’m reserved irl and try to keep to myself but I always stand up for myself. If someone yells at me I’m more likely to try and get them to tell even louder lol. Sadly the only advice I think I can give is exposure to these situations. You can read all the self help stuff you like but assertiveness and confidence is something that’s only gained through experience. It will be scary at first but you get used to it and realize you’re stronger that you think you are. Good luck!
People will tell you to mute everyone in game but since this is a team game and you can meet some nice people, I would refrain against that.
Instead, I would seek some professional help as it sounds like these issues expand much further than just a game. Unfortunately you can’t mute people in real life and nobody in this forum is really able to help with your sensitivity issues.
Didn’t take long for the trolls to find this post, did it.
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I’ve seen a few posts about ranked anxiety on reddit, there are some things you can do. First you can go into settings>Sound> Then turn Voice Chat Volume to 0%. This will make it look like you are in voice chat, so no one complains, but also you wont have to listen to it. Next you can type /hidechat and this will hide the text chat. Now you can just play, enjoy the game, and never really worry about people being toxic.
When I get a few games with toxic people sometimes I do this and think of it as a vacation, but there is nothing wrong with hideing chat and muting voice all the time. I’m sorry people have been toxic to you, it can be really offputting. I’ve actually made a point in the past of watching the vods from the toxic players perspective, and the funny thing is they have all been really bad, I think they are just looking for someone to blame so they dont have to own their mistakes.
Do not feel bad about not communicating with your team either, you will play better when you are having fun, and if not being part of a toxic community make you enjoy the game more, everyone wins (except the toxic people, they will have to find someone else to blame lol)
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You clever wonderful person 
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I have the same problem. I’ve found that keeping all chats muted makes it more enjoyable. It also makes me play better because I don’t spend mental energy getting upset over someone else’s comments and can focus more on the game.
I will say though if I am doing bad I start to get anxious that they are trash talking me. So it doesn’t completely work but it helps.
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just turn off chat and don’t join vc or anything. playing with friends also helps a lot.
honestly i just kinda took it and got desensitized from it like the old cod days
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As someone who is rather unstable themselves, your best bet is to turn off all the chats in this game.
Its obvious, but people are really petty in this game and will find ANY reason to start fuss. Go to your Options > Social, and then under the Text Chats section set ALL of the text chats to off. Don’t join VC either if you don’t want to deal with any potential negativity.
Started doing this myself recently after finding out you could disable the text chats, and I’ve been playing more of this game since.
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Yes.
And I mean this in all seriousness, but the best thing to do in regards to OW is to quit the game.
The structure and interactions that the game forces upon it’s players can only result in disappointment or approval. Either you let the Reinhardt die because you missed your Anti-Nade and now he’s upset because his existence is directly linked to your performance, or you landed the Nade and saved him and he thanks you in chat.
But OW doesn’t really produce “grey” interactions amongst their playerbase. Responses to in game decisions are generally immediate and clarify what the error is. They have structured a very “Black and White” system in regards to “Defeat vs Victory” and their meaningless end of match “Medals Screen”.
These black and white concepts have wrongfully transcended to the playerbase with their own interactions with one another.
“Who cares if we had fun, I played for 26mins with Triple OT, I lost SR, dropped my rank, and failed to get competitive points for my next gold.”
You see, Blizzard has intentionally made defeat as miserable and dreadful as possible to keep you addicted to the “high of winning”.
What this ultimately means for a player such as yourself who has severe anxiety and depression is that you will be dragged along on your own rollercoaster where you’re always self-deprecating and depressed when you lose (because the game encourages this) and you’re desperately anxious about winning (because winning is designed to be an addiction, yet is difficult to consistently achieve so that you stay in their queues).
Why do I know all of this?
Because I too have high anxiety and depression, grinded OW almost daily for 2 years, and learned the hard way that this game produces some of the most justifiable toxic interactions you’d ever experience. It’s not fun knowing you’re the cause of a lost team fight, nor is it fun not being able to play the one or two heroes you’re good at,because the game is so wildly imbalanced, yet your teammates are malding at you because you’re “throwing” with your choice.
And we’re all guilty of being on both sides of that last equation.
Before I quit, I used to say to my old friends,
“Who’s allowed to have fun in OW? Oh that’s right, nobody!”
Because the excuse would often come out “I’m just trying to have fun by playing ______.”
Well me and my duo are trying to have fun playing Hog+Zarya. You think my allies like that? What about the Junkrat and Sym who won’t swap despite the Echo+Pharah combo? Idc how much fun their having, the other 4 players aren’t having it.
“Nobody is allowed to have fun in OW.”
It’s best to spare your mental and quit. And I know this sounds really discouraging, but you don’t want to go down that road with this game. A handful of us have and can tell you it’s not worth it and trying to come back from doing so is incredibly difficult.
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It’s just a you issue. If you are bad at a video game, that doesn’t matter, lol.
Usually if someone says something like this to me I’ll respond with, “good idea, I’ll do that. Thanks for the advice.” Or something along those lines. If they say something like “redkite you suck,” my response is usually “yep, lol.” It’s not a big deal to be bad at a video game.
I don’t know how being good at a video game somehow got tied to “self worth” (stupid nerds), but it’s pretty easy to shut them down by telling them you just don’t care that you’re bad, lol. Their whole world comes crashing down. It kind of feels good to make fun of them for thinking that being good at a video game is a good thing, actually. They really don’t have anything to say after that. Deer in headlights. "uh, wait, you don’t care that you’re bad? What do I say now??? 
"
I guess the only thing I could say to you, is try not to care what others think. For me, it seems like such an easy thing to do, but I get how it could be hard for some.
Personally, the only people that I really care about are my family members, and maybe close friends. Strangers on the internet though, lol. Even strangers in real life, I just don’t care what they think about me. And really, I don’t understand why anyone would. Maybe if you can figure out why you care so much, you can stop caring so much? Their opinions really shouldn’t matter at all to you.
Thanks for all the responses, they have all been helpful. I think one issue I have with just turning of the chat is then I get anxious that someone is saying something directed at me- negative or positive. I should give it a try but I think it would stress me out too, and as people have said, there are positive interactions with players too. I’ll definitely try a few suggestions out though.
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Yes, playing single player games. Because multiplayer games are at least 50% BS. Or exclusively playing with friends, that won’t abuse your weak point.
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Firstly, eff this guy:
The fact that they’re still dwelling on it half an hour later hints at a deeply insecure and immature person. This is 100% a ‘them problem’ not a ‘you problem’.
Moving on.
I do struggle with depression and anxiety, so I know where you’re coming from. I have also played a lot of computer games in my time. The truth is, I have never played a game that made me feel worthless or that heightened my anxiety…until I played Overwatch.
I don’t know exactly why that is, but my guess would be:
The toxicity flares up really quickly and at points when it really shouldn’t because people still don’t understand the game.
Eg. You lose the point on King’s row then start the moving cart phase. Some people still don’t understand that you’re supposed to lose the point eventually, it’s not a full hold scenario. They immediately start flaming and calling people out.
Your performance hinges too much on others playing correctly. It often leaves you feeling like “I don’t understand why I’m bad at this”
The SR system swings way too wildly. You can easily drop or gain 300SR in a week.
To be totally honest, my anxiety and depression went down a ton when I stopped playing OW altogether. Now I’m feeling a lot better, I play occasionally but as soon as I start to feel it negatively affecting me I’ll take a break again. Try playing some single player games, you’ll feel much better for it.
Honestly, you’ve totally summed it all up perfectly. Really well written and observed.
I played OW all day every day (no exaggeration) a few years ago when I was at my lowest, and I cannot stress how much worse this game made it. I had the exact rollercoaster effect you said you had.
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