People come to cry on your shoulder to spread discouragement, but their more important goal is to invade your space and attempt to create a kind of intimacy just beyond your level of comfort or interest. Once you have accepted this level of discomfort, even for just a few minutes, they know you can be induced to accept more.
They are also hoping you will say you understand their position, and that in sympathy perhaps reveal something you might not have otherwise. This will increase the false intimacy which they can then use to address you as a fellow sufferer.
At that point they will start trying harder and harder to characterize you in that way to yourself, so as to catch you in their net; they will press closer and closer.
Axé.
