This is the dark side of compassion, which literally means to “suffer with”. We want to help fix what is causing stress for someone else, and we end up jumping onto their sinking ship. The irony is that often the other person jumps into a lifeboat and rows off, leaving us to go down with the ship.

We get sucked into these situations because the other person really wants us to share in their suffering and initially is SO appreciative, which is what the person with the “helper” mindset craves. It’s all downhill from there!