Not unsurprisingly, people with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders do have real issues just like everyone else:
• Relational issues with friends and family members
• Work and school stressors
• Health and financial concerns
What is different for those with anxiety and related disorders, however, can be the inability to differentiate between the issue, and the anxiety about the issue:
• I may annoy my best friend sometimes, but is she really so angry with me that she’s never going to speak with me again?
• I got a C+ on that last test, but am I really going to fail the course?
• I do have a pretty bad headache, but does that mean I have a brain tumor?
The issues may be real, but are they as catastrophic as we imagine? The ability to separate reasonable, logical concerns from ones blown out of proportion is a skillset that can be taught using cognitive techniques. Importantly, the ability to differentiate real from imagined concerns (i.e., separating the real issue from the anxious worrying about the issue) will help to address the real concerns, leaving the individual with less concerns.