That's sensible advice for sure. At the same time, I feel like I can't apply myself anymore, and I hate to half-ass the work I do (I'm sure a lot of folks here will understand this).
I would highly encourage you to do a little interviewing, just to get past the anxiety. Try interviewing for things you aren't very interested in. It makes it much less stressful, and it gives you a sense that you aren't trapped. I went through a similar thing myself a few months back, and just doing some interviewing actually made doing my current job easier. In the end I had some frank conversations with my manager and was able to salvage my current position, but the interviewing really facilitated that. The important thing though, is you really should not stay at your current job as it is. Aside from it making you unhappy, you're doing damage to your resume. Being under-titled doesn't look good to potential future employers.
Find a head hunter to do it for you. They'll usually find a company for you and set everything up so that you won't have to go through too many hoops. I haven't tried this myself, but heard a few good stories about it.
yeah I do understand this. I think this is to your credit btw. The way to handle this is set up a time line to get out, then regression plan back. This should give you some sort of action plan. What helps here is action orientation