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Me contaron que la ansiedad era un problema grave.

Me contaron que la ansiedad era un problema grave.
They told me that the anxiety was a serious problem.
From Lesson 278:Past reported speech: present to imperfect·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Me contaron que la ansiedad era un problema grave.

Why is era used here instead of fue?
The original statement was probably Anxiety is a serious problem (La ansiedad es un problema grave). When we report what someone said in the past (Me contaron que...), present tense verbs like es shift to the imperfect tense (era).
I thought contar meant to count. Can it also mean to tell?
Yes! While contar means to count numbers, it is also very commonly used to mean to tell a story, a joke, or a piece of news. Here, Me contaron que... means They told me that...
Why is it un problema and not una problema since it ends in -a?
Problema is one of several words in Spanish that end in -ma but are masculine. These words often come from Greek, and you must always use masculine articles with them, like el problema or un problema.
Why do we need the article la before ansiedad when the English translation just says anxiety?
In Spanish, when you talk about an abstract concept or a general idea like anxiety, you must include the definite article (la). English usually drops the article in these cases.

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