I've (22f) had anxiety for a few years now and it seems to be worsening. It's gotten to the point where I'm overly anxious about everything and become easily paranoid. For instance, every time I do laundry I get scared that the washer's suddenly going to break and flood my apartment or that the dryer might catch on fire; every time I use the oven I get scared that it might catch on fire. I've never experienced a flood or a fire, but these are still thoughts that cause my heart to race and my mind to spin for however long the machines are running for. 

Some of my paranoid thoughts actually lead me to acting in ways that validate my paranoia. 

In social settings I get paranoid that I'll say or do some thing(s) that'll cause the other person to not like me. This isn't so bad in an informal group (3+) setting, but when I'm conversing with only one other person (even if it's a friend that I've known for a while) or if I'm in a formal group setting, my brain just shuts off. I overthink about how I should act and what I should say, which in turn leads to me stuttering, tripping over my words, not knowing how to respond, or responding awkwardly. (Recently, even grocery shopping has become impossible. I feel awkward just doing my thing)

I moved to a new city where the driving situation is far different from my hometown. Today I bit the bullet and decide to go for a drive to acquaint myself with the different terrain but throughout the drive I kept imagining things like hitting another car because I might hit the throttle too quick and hard after being stopped at a light, driving off the road, or crashing into another car because I wanted to merge too fast too late. I'm not a bad driver and I've never ever been nervous about driving before, not even on congested city highways with crazy drivers. I've never ran any stop signs or red lights and I've never hit a curb, etc, but today throughout the entirety of my drive my legs were shaking uncontrollably, my head was spinning; I kept excessively worrying about fking up...and I ended up f-ing up a few times (I keep replaying those moments in my head). 

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Any thoughts on what I can do to alleviate intrusive thoughts and prevent them from getting in the way of everything? 

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This might be a digression but I grew up in a very sheltered household where my parents and older family members basically did everything for me, or excessively helped me do things, and never let me try to work things out on my own; sometimes I got laughed at for attempting something new without assistance. I've been infantilized to this day. Everyone always made me doubt my abilities and now that I'm out on my own, I'm doubting my own abilities too because I keep wondering if I really don't/didn't have it in me to survive without help. I often find myself questioning what I'm doing, what made me think I could make it on my own, and if I should quit my job and move back in with my parents. 

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tl;dr: irrational thoughts make me act irrationally and validate my paranoid thoughts