paralyzing

How he pulled himself together in the face of what must have been a paralyzing shock when he found that the wrong man had fallen a victim to his plot.

That Sir Henry should have been exposed to this is, I must confess, a reproach to my management of the case, but we had no means of foreseeing the terrible and paralyzing spectacle which the beast presented, nor could we predict the fog which enabled him to burst upon us at such short notice.

If writing a comprehensive report feels paralyzing, you might commit to simply opening the document and typing a single paragraph.

They were entirely focused on their own practice, which taught me that our paralyzing fear of public judgment is largely imagined.