But jumping headfirst into a frustratingly difficult situation is the Dark Souls way!

OP, take a handful of fights and focus on what the opponent is doing. I learned how to PvP by hiding behind a shield until I could figure out the basic strategies used by most PvPers. From there, start playing around with stats that could routinely counter common builds--this also gives you the knowledge of how stats worked overall. Without even realizing it, you'll start getting better. Most people spam R1, but you'll quickly pick up things like every weapon guaranteeing a single follow-up if you're properly struck by its R1, but only one or two give a third strike. Against somebody using a straight sword and only tapping R1, you can get hit, wait for the second strike, then parry and successfully catch a lot of players by doing so.

PvP can be intimidating at first, but the basics are a lot less complicated than it seems. Good luck to you!