rdgrad15, often the regret comes from needing to vent and ending up venting to another person who simply doen't know how to respond.

I had to help my daughter understand that when she liked this boy in highschool and he would call her and he did not talk. I told her how to handle that was to prepare a list of things she could ask him to help him learn how to talk to her. So that is what she did with him and she came to me and told me "it worked". That boy NEVER forgot her and every year for YEARS he would call her just after the strike of midnight to wish her a happy birthday and be the first to wish her a happy birthday. Well, his parents were divorced and all about themselves and never really talked to him so that was a skill he simply did not develop.

It isn't that your needs don't deserve to be heard when that happens, it's typically more about how the other person doesn't have the skills needed to sit and listen.

Then there are the types of people that need all the attention to revolve around them. There again that individual prefers your attention to revolve more around them which can contribute to uncomfortable feelings, but also that too is all that person knows.