Weird Juxtaposition

So my rating dropped 125+ points in a little over a month. (Don't play chess while sad or angry). Except in the same period my puzzle rating went up something close to 450 points. 

You'd think success in puzzles would be matched by similar success in play.

Also...I hate puzzles. 

There's more to chess than tactics. Look at your opening database to see whether you're getting bad positions out of a certain opening line. Work on your endgames; theoretical endgames (lucena, philidor positions and other stuff like that) are a good thing to work on. Learn basic positional ideas and how to judge positions (you're about at the rating level where you might want to read How To Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman). If you work on those things consistently, you should improve.

Tactics are an interesting thing. I see most people that spend time on them are much higher rated in their puzzle capabilities than game playing abilities (sometimes even 1000 point difference). One reason for this is that in a puzzle, we know there is a forcing move so we look for this move and end up solving a puzzle with a move we would never see or consider in a game situation. I started to see more tactical opportunities in games when I started to analyze the entire puzzle before doing it (what threats does my opponent have, what threats do I have, which pieces are hanging, etc.) Not only did my puzzle ability increase, it helped train me to look at things like this more methodically in my games and has translated into much better chess than I had been playing and I was a lot happier with my games (win or lose).

The biggest part of my rating decline is simply a family crises that has me upset. That crises is in a fair way to being resolved and I'm regaining my emotional equilibrium, which I expect (hope) will lead to regaining my previous rating. 

@MightyKingFork your point about puzzles vs gameplay is a good one. I need to spend more time analyzing the position so I don't miss opportunities with a "good enough" move. Although I don't enjoy puzzles, I can already see their value, and they'll form a bigger part of my chess life from now on. 

@Rook-Handler there are quite a few books with that title. Is there a specific one? 

4th edition

@RussPlaysBad I despised the emphasis on tactics as a means of improvement until I had the realization I had above. I should add that when I do the puzzle, I also try to articulate why the puzzle works. Is it because of pin, skewer, removing the defender, attacking with a lesser valued piece, hanging piece, etc. I am much more aware of these piece relationships and dynamics in my game and this keeps me working at the puzzles when i don't have time for game.

@MightykingFork @Rook_Handler Thank you both very much!

My rating also swings wildly when my mental health is all over the place (I mostly play on lichess at this point). The key is to keep working and learning and your play will recover. It is possible that you are improving on tactics but your mentality elsewhere is suffering. For instance, I find myself playing into bad middlegames or trading pieces inappropriately when I am not doing great mentally because my focus is not there. It is possible that when you swing back up, you swing up further than you were before because of your tactics work. Also, chess is like working out in the sense that you may not see the gains from the work for months. Good luck on your future games!