I can assure you that you are going through a very normal process. It is not uncommon to experience doubt, fear, anxiety among many other things when holiness increases. Please read the excerpt from the Catholic Encyclopedia. While it pertains mainly to mental prayer, it can also apply to some extent to devotional prayers. Note that it does not say it is limited to those exercising mental prayer. While I have engaged in mental prayer, I have not done many devotional prayers. I have increased them significantly, similar to yours, in the last 2 months. I too experience the kinds of things you mention and spoke to my pastor about it. He gave me the same assurance (from his personal experience and from working with others).
The excerpt on “Desolation” comes from this full text article, which is lengthy:
newadvent.org/cathen/14254a.htm
Desolation
Spiritual desolation means the feeling of abandonment by
God, and of the absence of His grace. This feeling of estrangement may arise from various causes. It may be the result of natural disposition or temperament, or of external circumstances; or it may come from the attacks of the
devil; or from
God Himself when for our greater good He withdraws from us spiritual consolation. In contradistinction to consolation spiritual desolation may be of three kinds.
The first is called sensible desolation and is the opposite of sensible consolation.
It includes aridities, dissipation of mind, weariness, and disgust in the exercises of piety; and it is often experienced by beginners in the practice of mental prayer. It may co-exist with consolation of a higher order just as, in the natural. order, we may pain of body and joy of soul at one and the same time.
The second kind of desolation affects the intellect and will, and consists in the privation of the feeling of the presence of the supernatural virtues as described by
St. Teresa in her Life (ch. xxx). This trial is extremely severe, but if generously accepted, and patiently endured, it may be turned into great merit, and many fruits of sanctity will be the result. (See letter of St. Francis of Sales to S. Jane Frances de Chantal, 28 March, 1612). The third kind of desolation is still more severe. It is a darkening of the mind and a feeling of abandonment so great that the soul is tempted to distrust concerning salvation and is tormented by other terrible thoughts against faith, against purity, and even by blasphemous thoughts–the most painful experience which a holy soul has to endure (see St. John of the Cross, op. cit., infra, bk. I, ch. xiv). It would be a great mistake to imagine that spiritual desolation arrests progress in virtue or enfeebles the spirit of fervour. On the contrary, it affords occasion of heroic virtue and of absolute detachment from sensible pleasure, whether natural or supernatural. At the same time we may hope and wish that these interior griefs may be diminished or made to disappear, and we may pray
God to deliver us from them, but if all our efforts are in vain, and
God permits the desolation to continue, it only remains to resign ourselves generously to His Divine Will.
Aside from this, overloading yourself with too many devotional prayers can lead to burnout - something the devil relishes when we experience the agony of defeat in trying to keep up and throw in the towel as it sounds you are ready to do.
Hang in there, but maybe re-evaluate just how much you are doing in so little time. Consider talking to a priest and re-arranging your prayer plan. Tell him about your struggles. I believe you are experiencing a common set of “beginner” issues that can be helped through dialogue with a priest. Confession is one place to do that. If you have doubts, or if you can’t meet your prayer committments, mention this in confession and listen to the advice given by the priest. If he tells you to cut down, the cut down. If he explains the normal process of spiritual growth, then listen to him there.
