Taken over my life and I'm lost

about a year and a half ago, right near the beginning of covid, I went to the Dr because I could not take a satisfying deep breath and felt full. After proving it wasn't covid, h-pylori, or a yeast overgrowth the doctors suggested I had GERD. They did an endoscopy which showed I had a small hiatal hernia. My father passed a few months before this all started and it's been a stressful year of being the executor of his estate and living with the pandemic, but I feel like GERD has completely ruined my life. I never really had chest burning or indigestion, at least not till more recently. At this point I have a constant burning in my stomach, burp a lot, and regularly have a feeling of swollen scratchy throat and esophagus, and unsatisfying deep breaths with sinking diaphragm feeling.

The doctors told me to stay away from "trigger" foods, but no particular food seems to trigger it. The feeling is constant, and the only thing that "helps" is distracting myself from it, but that feels impossible because any time I eat I'm reminded. I tried sleeping at an angle, antacids, PPIs, carafet, dexilant, and every drug that was supposed to help besides Regulant, but nothing even slightly helped. I've been putting off Regulant because it has the possibility of producing tremors. At this point I'm ready to try it, but was hoping I could get some support or suggestions from this forum.

I'm 30 years old. I was a chubby kids but as an adult I lost the weight. My passions for my whole life were eating and exercise. Exercise seems to be the best distraction, but since I can't take a satisfying deep breath it stays in the back of my mind. Every meal terrifies me. At this point my meals are much smaller and I eat really slowly and chew extremely well but always feel over full. It feels like every time I take a breath it pushes the food back up. I can't drink water after a meal without it adding to the fullness and my bowl movement are small and unsatisfying because of it.

My wife thinks stress and anxiety is causing all of this and I think it's at least compounding it. I feel hopeless and lost. I used to breath, exercise, and eat my favorite foods to be happy and reduce stress, but all those things just remind me more of it. I started seeing a counselor to try and help with anxiety so we will see if that helps.

Can anyone suggest anything that might help?

Has anyone had success with Regulant?

Does my story seem similar to other people with GERD?