I know personally I have a lot of problems with comforting and helping people and it really bothers me... I rarely ever seem to know the right thing to say. People will tell me something horrible that happened to them and I never know what to say besides "That really sucks! I'm so sorry!" or some other stupid response like that. I actually really beat myself up for it because I am very keen to others' emotions and want to help people that are down so badly, I just don't know how. I'm sure a lot of other people have a similar problem like a lot of posters have said - what do they do? And everyone is different. For example, when I'm really down about something specific I stop talking altogether and avoid people because I really honestly don't know how to talk to anyone about my emotions or personal problems. So oddly enough for me, I've found it actually helps when people keep digging to try to get it out of me where as I think most people would get irritated and angry.