If You think your problems are so important...

[PanicCured]

Think of how long you've had anxiety for. Think of how long your life is. Think of the entire history of the US. The entire history of Europe. How about all the way back to ancient Egypt. Long time, right? Think about the entire human race has been on Earth for a whopping 190,000 years. Total human history about 190,000 years! Then think about the dinosaurs roamed the planet for about 165 million years! 165 million years of total dinosaur domination!!!

Now what was it you were saying about your problems again?

[sae]

I really do love this line of thought. Something similar to this is how I approach my fear of social interaction... the whole "no one not genuinely engaged in conversation with or about you will give you more than a few seconds of thought."
My only problem with this is as follows: while I certainly cannot speak for anyone other than myself, the problem is most certainly my narrowed sense on self in relation to the world around me. I am still uncertain if the anxiety lessens my self awareness or my lessened self awareness breeds anxiety. Chicken or egg? Either way I find my surroundings often quite overwhelming, loud, stressful, confusing. With such a narrow sense of self, most likely a defense against the constant barrage of overwhelming stimuli, it is difficult to put my problems into a collective world view.
Logically I could never claim my problems or my fears to be greater than the sum of those that have been, are, and will be. I would even venture to say my problems, especially these days are very trivial in comparison to most. Nonetheless they are made real, and while I still remain in blinders they will be the biggest problems.
Perhaps sometimes realizing the scale of one's problems isn't the issue so much as taking in the reality that such a scale exists amongst people aS a whole.

Awesome thoughts. Thanks for sharing :)