Probably a common enough problem, wanted to get some input

[Genz]

This post is pretty long and that's because your OP touches a lot of points that I am momentarily struggling with myself. I hope it helps a little.

For your play: Get a coach. Someone who coaches on a regular basis and has a good reputation. It should be worth the money. I find that when I talk with players that play higher than me and they tell me something about preflop game etc. it's extremely insightfull. I can only recommend it.

For the money issues: Ironically, I got unattached to the money when I moved down from a shot at 100NL. So it's all relative. You might try short stacking 100NL FR for a few K hands and see all the bigger pots and then move down. But short stacking isn't much fun...
I definitely know where you are coming from and when I lose a few buy-ins I'm all on tilt about what I could have done with those 200 bucks etc. I have now cashed out a good amount from my roll to buy a few things. I hope that this helps with the fear to go on a big downswing or figuring out that I'm a losing player too late and end up going busto and having gotten nothing out of the game. So maybe you want to cash out a little bit so that you end up with a good amount that you grind it up from 25NL to 50NL pretty soon.

And if nothing helps you just have to realize: maybe you have a relation to money that is far more sound than that of most people in the industry. When you play for fun: stay on the lower limits. Who cares? You still make a nice buck that you can cash out from time to time. Nothing good comes from playing where you are uncomfortable. Of course there is A LOT of social pressure to move up, esp. from the micro limits, in these forums and that brings me to my final point:

For the forums: Ditch the community stuff. Seriously. I know where you are coming from. Stuff like the brew threads, BBV, BBV4L, OOT are serious killers if you are prone to procrastrinate, as I am. You can waste countless hours. And esp. in the brew threads, there is a lot talk going on about good and bad runs, moving up, bankroll nits etc. that can bring some pressure on of the kind that you are a bad player if you enjoy playing 25NL and don't want to move up. WTF, srsly! If poker is a fun business for you, keep it there. I see no shame in playing 10NL for your whole life if you enjoy it. All those semi-pro-baller-kids in those threads can easily mess with your whole perception of the game.

So my general advice is: take it easy. And when you still want to move up, consider getting a coach.