Rating Down the Toilet, Losing Every Game

This is not to ask for help in improving my rating short-term, as I believe I can (or maybe hope I can) dig myself out of this current predicament. I've been studying chess a good 2-4 hours a day the past few weeks in terms of puzzles, reading end game theory, watching videos and playing "rapid" games (mostly 10 minute but also 15|10 and 60m) to then analyze afterwards. My rating climbed from the mid 1200's to 1371, which made me feel accomplished. Then a few days ago, I started losing all my rapid games. And the more I lose, the more I play. Now I'm in a long losing streak, which includes low-1200 opponents. After a couple good weeks of laughing at how elementary the blunders of 1250's were, I'm one of them again—right back to where I was before these hundreds of hours of practice. In fact, I'm probably playing my games right now at an 1100 or so level. It doesn't matter how many blunder checks I do; I struggle now to execute basic arithmetic and to count how many pieces are defending a square. Funny thing is, I'm still improving in bullet, blitz and puzzles. My puzzle rating is over a thousand points higher than my rapid, which I think is pretty rare.

This issue has happened to me before, and I'm probably gonna spend several days to several weeks crawling back to 1370. Disgustingly unfair. How common is this problem? Are there any tips to preventing this short-term mental decline, or spotting when it's about to occur? Maybe less chess?

Whenever you lose a game, stop playing and analyse it first. You learn from your mistake while the impring is still fresh. You break the losing streak and avoid mental tilt.

Thanks to you two for the feedback. Dumping two long paragraphs on the forum for people to read helps vent my frustration alone; having answers is even better. I think the key takeaway is "stop playing".

When I start tilting, my mindset becomes "must win".  That is not a good thing.  Notice how when you're winning games, it often feels like it is coming easy and without struggle (not always, but often)?  It feels fun and natural.  Make sure your focus is on making good moves and not about having to win.  The "must win" mindset clouds your judgement and clarity.

Finally a sensible thread on the forum

TLDR; Make sure the quality of training is good, less is more; don't try to improve in a short amount of time try to work everyday on your chess for a year; take a look at your games to find out where you need improvement

A couple of weeks is not much time even if you would study a bunch of hours each day. The quality of the training also matters. Doing a puzzle properly is important. It's not just important to find the right move or one single variation. It is important to spot all variations. Usually chess.com will only confront you with the mainline but what happens if your opponents plays other variations? In a real game you have to see everything as well.

Also the focus on rating is not good for you. You will as you stated in OP get your rating back anyway. Unless your skills have detoriated you will always be able to climb back. Focus on what you have to do to improve your current play which is something you can only know by looking at your own games especially the ones you've lost.

Regarding the time frame. GM Hansen said on his youtube channel GMTalks that people overestimate what they can do in a week, month(s) but underestimate what they can do in a year of consistent work. So don't expect instant improvement after training for some time. It sometimes takes month until it clicks. There will be maybe one game where you suddenly understand a concept you learnt months ago or you will spot a tactics that you practiced so much the previous months.

This tends to happen when you study a lot, especially if you're studying challenging concepts to your current ability. This is probably due to the fact that while you're still trying to comprehend the concepts you are effectively learning, the other aspects of your game might take a plunge. If you get tilted and try to regain your rating by playing more, you will most likely just spiral further down. What you should do, is to really forget about the short term rating fluctuation. It happens to all of us, but if you continue on trying to learn and improve, your rating will follow on the long term. 

You took a quick sprint up to 1350s on your rapid rating, which was your personal highest rating. Truth is that we're never quite as strong as your highest rating would say, probably 100 to 200 points lower. So having a rating fluctuation of about 200 points (or even more in faster time controls) is completely normal. I know "forgetting about the rating" is easier said than done, but in the end it's just a number to match you with opponents of similar skill level. When your skill increases, so does your rating. But it doesn't always happen right away and it might take some time for all the new information to properly sink in. At least every loss is a good chance to learn and you should treat it as such.

To sum it up, focus on learning and trying to understand why you lose, and then try to work on that. If you do this your skill will improve and eventually the rating will follow. Short term gains are usually just short term gains and it takes years and years of dedicated practice to get to the higher levels of skill.

Good luck.

It happens... I was like 1470 blitz high a month ago but was 1280 blitz a day ago from the tilt!

Just play solid as wesly so's says and I get outta the lump once I come back to chess later or another day!

Happens, I've tilted 60+ points in blitz and rapid easily. Just do puzzles and things and wait until you stop missing things. Once this happens you'll probably hit a new peak with some work 😂

Puzzles haven't done then in weeks ah yea puzzles