I find it a very very rare thing that a friend can totally empathize with our struggles. Like others have said, choose carefully who you want to confide in. Also, so many people DO care but they just don't know how to help or how to support.

Different friends can provide different things for us - the 'going to the movies friend', the 'take a walk in the park friend', the 'superficial sharing friend', the 'deep sharing friend'.

And that's why a therapist is so so important (at least to me). I can dump anything and everything there. It is wonderful to have that place/space to do that.