When I ask you to listen to me when I hurt or have a problem and you start giving me advice, you haven't done what I asked. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin telling me why I should or shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings. When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as it may seem.
Advice is cheap.
A quarter will buy it both from Dear Abby and an astrologer in the same newspaper. But I'm not helpless. But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding what's behind this feeling. When that becomes clear and the answers become obvious and I don't need any advice. So I ask you, if you truly care - to just listen to me.