Why keep an ex present in your life still if it's just going to torment with your emotions? My advice would be to cut the ex out of your life completely, to allow yourself to self heal and self develop as efficiently as possible. This is holding you back from being able to be the better version of yourself, be free from this anxiety, life is hard enough as it is, you don't want to make it harder for yourself with anything relating to a negative past, especially when it comes to ex's