[AnitaMoore]

I'm wondering how people cope with every day anxiety without panic and without causing extra stress. I want to just live without having to try to control and have a plan. I have a planning personality and do this naturally. But sometimes it just gets overwhelming.

AnitaMoore

Trying too hard to control and plan things sounds anxiety-provoking! Try to control the things that are reasonably to try to control, then try to accept that unexpected anxiety-provoking things are going to happen and tell yourself that you will be able to deal with them as they come (because you will be).

I flee to the bathroom and that is typically where I will self harm.

Not exactly what I would recommend.

[chromegirl]

I try to keep my life as simple as possible when I am going through an episode. Just focus on the basics - I try to do a few things as well as possible rather than trying to spread myself too thin. Anxiety is exhausting...so I farm out responsibilities when I can, put less important things on the back burner, and take shortcuts where possible (like making simpler meals or ordering takeout instead of cooking from scratch, something I'd usually do).

[bixkf]

I'm still working on it myself. I guess I'm like you, somewhat conservative and always planning for the future. I've always been trying to make sure that as a family we are prepared and ready to handle the ups and downs, so this means long term planning, and the long term plans need to work on short term plans. It's normally the short term plans that get all messed up then the long term plans fall apart, then I get lost and all anxious that nothing every works right.
I was trying for like a year and a half to save the money to buy a new car. At least 5 times I have $2-3K in the saving account, but every time I had this my wife would spend $2-3K on the credit card and I'd have to use the money to pay the card back. In the end, my old car had to be replaced and I had no money for a downpayment and am now paying a whole lot each month for 6 years, and that stresses me out!!!
Even being intimate with my spouse is a source of anxiety. Due to an injury I need to take a little "blue" pill to "perform". There's a time limit on those things so just getting us both in sync doesn't always happen. So now, even if I should take one and when becomes a source anxiety. It's not fair that the solution to one problem creates another problem which makes the original problem worse.

I've tried Chromegirl's method of trying to keep life as simple as possible. I've done this by avoiding or ignoring troublespots. This kind of means that my wife and I are less and less intimate and we are more and more in debt. And you could probably get that this causes more anxiety.

The title of your post says it all, anxiety has taken over my life. Solutions become problems...

If only I could just move to a nice warm place and live naked in the woods, then maybe I'd be able to relax and live in peace.