how do i overcome the mental factor

So, I am around 300-400 points stronger than one of my frnds on cc, but everytime I play him I dont play at my strength and prolly for the first time, I have a -ve score against him while also being at my best cc rapid rating ever. At the same time, when I play a stronger opponent, I tend to play slightly above my strength. How do I keep mysel in this state for more games?

I have tournament experience up to the youth national championship level. My advice is to just stay calm and prepare a lot because preparation will raise your confidence. I wish you luck beating your friend.

Love the question, looking forward the answers

Do a few puzzles everyday, look through your opening repertoire every once in a while or every few days to memorize your openings and the key ideas/lines and by the way pro tip, if it's your opponent's turn think about what moves they'll play and see if there is a good move that you can play and in the time that your opponent is using thinking about their next move find a good follow-up for the move that you thought about for when your opponent plays their move.

The same happens to me lol, you are probably playing more carelessly and having a good time which makes it more likely to "slip". I assume your friend is competent enough to convert to a winning position, so I'm not surprised you are losing. If you feel like you are playing better against stronger players specifically, you aren't, you are probably just more incentivized to win, so you start trying harder. If you want to keep playing like that, warm up with a couple of puzzles or a puzzle rush then queue for a longer game (if you can't stand rapid then try 5 min) then use your time to try to play the best moves, you should aim for ten 80+ accuracy games a week, focus on just calculating for whatever you deem the best move, then make sure to analyze all your games (even if you get stomped in 9 moves) use the engine and go to the parts of the game where you took the most time calculating, this will improve your calculation which is what 1600s struggle with and it will 
give you ideas on what you should study (ex: if you have noticed in lots of your games that your bishop+pawn endgames suck, you go to an endgames trainer and dedicate a couple of days to only studying bishop+pawn endgames). I think that the idea of "I play better against better opponents"
is just a misconception, maybe you ARE playing better but that isn't because they are higher-rated, it's because you decide to think and you try to play better.

Hide the rating on the website, there are extensions and a setting on this site to do it.

Also, it's ok to underperform a bit on friendlies, happens to everyone.

One possibility is your friend is underrated. Another is that your styles or psychology give him an advantage over you. Hikaru has in recent years had Fabi's number, despite the latter being an equal or even marginally better player. Sometimes the matchup just doesn't stack well, and there's probably someone out there with a higher elo who you could beat in a match but who would put your friend's head on a spike.

In fact, Lasker made his World Champion Career by selecting only championship matchups he thought would be seen as legitimate but that he would win.

I think it's just adrenline. You can underestimate an opponent lower than you and try to play like them sometimes and they end up being stronger than the gimmick you have set up. You eventually look as much as you can against stronger opponents. I think this post helped. Let me know if this post helped by giving a !!, reaction (it helped) and a ?? Reaction (didn't help)

Try to be fearless in your play, confidence is one of your best weapons in chess.

Same I have won against 2300's and 2400's the past few days, but when I play against other 2000's like me I don't see how I can't win against them easily!?

I have been to U11 team nationals twice. The thing is you are getting a little to overconfident and do not concentrate properly against lower rated but when it comes to higher rated you know he/she is strong and concentrated even more. So, my advice is that you better do not look at your opponent's Elo just keep it like his Elo is 400 points more than you and play.

alright will try to not underestimate him. lost again today