I just submitted my first article to a major magic magazine. It is a history/biography article about Mercedes Talma. I am really proud of the article but Oh man I am so nervous.
My hands are shaking and cold.
I figure, if nothing else I may get a nice rejection letter to frame:)

I am prone to extreme anxiety and panic attacks. Sometimes it keeps me up for weeks.

That comes from obsessing. Where you play and replay all sorts of possible scenarios in your head, and 99.99999% of them will never come true, if any of them. Let go.
Either they accept the article or they don't. Just because one publisher rejects something it doesn't mean another will do the same. I've submitted articles to professional journals to have them rejected one time, then pull them out a year or so later and have them jumped at. That is the publishing game.

That's true, I heard a similar story about Robert E Howard. He took a rejected Kull story and rewrote it as Conan and they jumped right on it.
Thanks for putting it in perspective.

When I was in college 12 years ago (graphic design pre-CAD era), the general consensus was that if you had enough rejection letters to wallpaper your room you can call yourself a professional.

And the Conan thing... I don't think that's what the padre meant.

Remember the publisher that rejected 'Harry Potter'...?!

There's always someone else to try...

Piers.

I have had the same problem. Father Photius is right. It comes from obsessing, and circular reasoning. Do something that requires a series of steps to complete. (I usually cook something complex.) Change your thought process from circular to linear. (Step one, step two, etc.) Or, make a firm decision to do something unrelated to what you're thinking about, and do it! Best of all, try to think of something you could do that would help someone else out, and do that. It helps to get your mind off of yourself.

Using that technique, and advice from the book below, I have learned to control my anxiety.

I can highly recommend Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" I paid a psychologist $120 an hour to learn things that were in that book for only $7.99. I'm completely serious. There was nothing she taught me that wasn't in that book.

People most value what they've paid a lot to learn. If you feel that you won't heed the advice in that book because it costs you virtually nothing, just send me a bunch of money in a box.

Good luck on getting published!