So my personal life just got very interesting. In a net-positive way, certainly, but still, I am, as Calculon put it, "filled with a large number of powerful emotions!" -- some of which are anxious and/or panicky.
This is making it annoyingly difficult to focus at work. I am an absolutely textbook "Attention Deficit Oh-look-a-squirrel!" case at the best of times, and this seems to have made it much, much worse. I can handle small tasks, but anything where I'm going to have to spend an hour solving multiple problems before producing results, I can hardly make myself start.
Has anyone dealt with the problem of maintaining productive focus while emotionally overwhelmed/exhausted, and if so, do you have any pointers?
Don't take any breaks. Escalate! Make your work more interesting to match, or take up other activities. This strategy works for me in times of extreme happiness and extreme unhappiness alike. Personal life must never be allowed to interfere with progress, no matter how exciting it feels.
This advice is alien to my personal experience (as noted previously) but seems strangely seductive. Note that I am not here at less wrong because I think my thinking processes are in perfect order. In my life, the pleasant distractions from work have included falling in love, the euphoria of getting what I regarded as an honor, and becoming a father. These have been the high points in my life. In contrast my work has been...rather imperfectly fulfilling. When the high points have come, I have benefited by regarding myself as temporarily and happily impaired. I take it you would advise the original poster to find deeply fulfilling work. On reflection, I really, really agree.