When someone is upset and telling me about a problem they have, my conditioning is to hear an implicit request to fix it. If I don’t catch myself, I’ll get anxious that I can’t and respond unhelpfully. Usually, of course, they just want someone to hear them out.

#NonviolentCommunication is an excellent practice for this. Sometimes I feel like an android saying something like, “it sounds like you are feeling upset that [thing you just said],” but no one ever seems to take it that way.