I have had a few times where I ended up becoming someone's emotional dump patsy. Even though I had my own big challenges taking place, I got a quick question about me and then ended up sitting with the emotional dump. I began to realize that the presence really did not want to hear about me, but basically just needed to do an emotional dump with me. Then I even faced a lot of criticism because I somehow did not JUST only focus on their emotional dump and suddenly I am a bad person even. Well, in all honesty, the best scenario is to get the other person to WANT to stop using you as an emotional dump so you are finally released from playing that role with that person. These individuals ususally don't want to hear about YOUR challenges either, or even your opinions for that matter. All they really wanted was you to be their emotional dump patsy.

You sound like you are a nice "caring" person, you just learned a lesson about how you will need to have better boundaries so you don't end up becoming someone else's emotional dump patsy.