I don't drink coffee but yes I indulge myself with some alcohol every now and then.

Is funny because part of the sentence you picked to point out actually says first "I'm tired of trying" Hence, yes I have a comfort zone, but I've tried to expland it with 0 results.
Your idea of baby steps is actually in some way what I'm doing right now to cope with this traveling situation. Not on the aspect of research, if not more on the take action side.
For example. I want to go to place "A" that is far away. But, since I dunno if I'm gonna make it and blow money on a trip I'll never end up going to (it has happened to me before even when anxiety wasnt a thing, i just got sick out of nowhere and couldn't make it) I thought, Ok, lets go to place B that is nearer and cheaper. And guess what, that happened last week, when I ended having once again the anxiety attack. And it was 48 hours of not sleeping and 4 days of feeling like sh*t. I can roll with it when it's momentary, but when it comes like that, for days how do you do?
Also I'm aware that part of the problem is flying itself. Probably if I was travelling by car it would be less of a stressful situation. But i've been on aerplanes before, so once again, my anxiety is nonsense hahahah.

Thanks for listening