Do you feel burdened when your friends talk about their own problems? I admit that I do sometimes (especially if it's about a romance that keeps going in vicious circles), but never when it's about illness in the family. I take that quite seriously.

That being said, I have gone for professional counselling several times when I was dealing with illness in the family, because even though I spoke to my friends about it, I felt like I needed a different kind of listening.