Thats nice of him. It's good to feel like you have worth in your career. As long as indespensable doesn't mean you are stressed to the limit, it's a good thing.

I can understand what you mean by constantly worrying about the standard of your work. I felt this too. I got so wrapped up in my work that it destroyed my life outside of it and then when I started to feel that the work had no point either as nothing ever seemed to improve, my health really slipped.

I think you have to be careful with just how deep you get into your work if you are prone to anxiety. It can be a form of avoidance (as in my case) or it can end up creating a bigger problem as it trains your behaviour (also later in my case).

I think it's fine to deal with the past, traumas, do the acceptance thing but I also thing that it is possible to work indirectly against issues by lifting self confidence, self esteem and self worth. I've found that as I have done this, the setbacks don't make me plunge as far as I used to.

It's like my baseline has increased if that makes sense?