Dealing with friends problems

[redrider12]

So I need some help. A few months ago, I met this girl. Nothing out of the ordinary about it, she just seemed like an outgoing person. And then, slowly but surely, she began to trust me. It was like night and day. She admitted, very carefully, that she had lost one of her best friends earlier in the school year to a double suicide incident. It was obvious that she was just putting on his face when I first met her, because she obviously had not gotten over any of the grief from that. We aren't exactly best friends, but we talk enough, and enough about that incident, that I can't help but hurt for her. When I had similar issues with myself years ago, the best thing one of my friends did was try to sympathize and talk it all out. I've tried to at least identify with what she is feeling, and I feel like it has taken me over. Like her problems have become mine. I worry more now about her than I do about myself, and I feel like it is affecting our relationship I want to be there for her, but I also feel like it is taking over my life. What is the best thing to do?

[Dune]

I was in the same position as you. My previous friend/ex pretty much dumped all of her problems on me for a year and a half, and it slowly ate me away to the point where I became severely depressed. I now have slight anxiety as I worry about her a lot. All I can say is, just listen to her, and try to be uplifting and happy. She probably has a lot of built up emotion that she is trying to express, and needs someone to talk to. If I were you I would suggest to her that she may need a therapist, because you can't be there for her all the time, neither are you qualified. But whatever you do, don't let her sink you in the emotional boat of feels.

[redrider12]

I'd like to be.. We aren't like "best" friends (two of my good friends and her are inseparable) but I wish I could help. Every time I offer to do anything for her, she just says OK Thanks but never takes me up on it. I can tell that she's depressed, and to be honest her depression is wearing off on me. She refuses to get a therapist, and she's even gone so far as to create a "friend" who "broke into her house and took her phone" that started texting me about how much she just wanted someone to lean on, someone to care.. I offered again and she just said K. It's like being curved in a relationship that obviously isn't intended to be serious. I spend hours re-reading her and my texts to try and figure out why she acts so weird (if it's me) and drive myself totally insane in the process