Once you make it to a new high rating & then drop back straight after is a good sign that your brain is now reconstructing. Few good nights sleep to give the old brain box time to heal & you will bounce back even stronger.
Oh good; this gives me hope - I drop straight down a lot after reaching "new rating highs" and am in a drop right now 
Just play 10 min blitz. Unless of course you know literally no opening theory. Then you might actually need the time in rapid.
No I definitely need the time in rapid. Like in this recent 15+10 game, I try to develop all my pieces quickly and still get stomped. So many opening traps to be wary of.
on move 5, Nf3 was too passive. White has done nothing wrong in the opening and should not be considering retreat as his first option. Better was 5.Nb5! targeting the weak hole on d5.
On move 7 I would not have played so defensively with Bd3, instead I would opt for Bg5 which fights for the initiative.
And of course white should have castled earlier to avoid the troubles he got in the game
Once you make it to a new high rating & then drop back straight after is a good sign that your brain is now reconstructing. Few good nights sleep to give the old brain box time to heal & you will bounce back even stronger.
Oh good; this gives me hope - I drop straight down a lot after reaching "new rating highs" and am in a drop right now
Don't worry about the rating drop. Just before I make any good progress my rating will drop & for a little while I start to play worse. Then after a little break I come back stronger than before. Good luck to you all. 
so today I went from 2064 down to 1970. hooray! I barely managed to crawl painfully (I am on touchpad so 3 mins doesn't help my finger arthritis) back up to 2002.
Just play 10 min blitz. Unless of course you know literally no opening theory. Then you might actually need the time in rapid.
No I definitely need the time in rapid. Like in this recent 15+10 game, I try to develop all my pieces quickly and still get stomped. So many opening traps to be wary of.
on move 5, Nf3 was too passive. White has done nothing wrong in the opening and should not be considering retreat as his first option. Better was 5.Nb5! targeting the weak hole on d5.
On move 7 I would not have played so defensively with Bd3, instead I would opt for Bg5 which fights for the initiative.
And of course white should have castled earlier to avoid the troubles he got in the game
SNUDOO thanks for the advice :-) My thinking during the game was that 5.Nb5 just gets my Knight kicked back to c3 or a3 by 5...a6. Or, if I then insisted with 6.Nd6 it simply gets snapped off with Bxd6. But of course, d6 is also covered by my Queen!
But I can't see the point of a 7.Ng5 given my other Knight is pinned and can't double attack it. 7...h6 just kicks it back to my side of the board so I assume you must intend to then play 8.Bxf6?
Once you make it to a new high rating & then drop back straight after is a good sign that your brain is now reconstructing. Few good nights sleep to give the old brain box time to heal & you will bounce back even stronger.