Taking drugs to overcome nerves is the thin edge of the wedge going in there.
You can sightread better if you know your scales and arpeggios.
I use the traditional Moyse scale books slightly modified.
By the time I got to the Paris Conservatoire I was very good at the scales and arpeggios.
...I got to try the bagpipes. It was like trying to blow an octopus.
The mind of the performer is a very strange thing.