Treat ladder as your level of competition, not how good you are. I believe, we are all psychologically limiting ourselves.
Ladder is not about boasting how good you are, but how consistent you are with your skill level. There are days of dips and rises.
I am sure when I say this many will agree: You perform much better unranked, than you do ranked. Your anxieties during ranked actually makes you hesitate on certain decisions that may actually cause you to win the game. During unranked, you go for moves you wouldn’t in ranked. But when you do the same in ranked, you get cheesed before that point, then you are discouraged. But don’t be discouraged.
Not everyone will cheese, even if your opponent does so 5 games in a row. Not everyone will macro.
It is not ideal to be worried about everything during every moment of the game. Your opponent is just as worried as you are.
Practicing vs A.I. has its benefits, but the A.I does not interrupt your build orders or whatever it is you do. Your human opponents will attempt to do that, and we lose because we didn’t practice how to deal with those things.
Remember, taking a cold-shower doesn’t kill you. Likewise, ranked ladder gameplay doesn’t mean you’ll lose. Neither does it mean you’ll win. That is decided during the game. Anxiety comes from the unknown.
Here, just study the tech-trees of each race: then when you scout the enemy buildings, you will know what they can punch out during any time of the game. Then you know what to do!