Wow, great work! You expressed his rage and grief so well. Thank you very much for sharing.

Edit: Corrected an autocorrect >_<

Beautiful! I love the protagonist's joy at re-entering the cycle of life again. Thanks very much for posting this.

I'm glad you find this advice helpful. :)

I agree and disagree. I think the main point is, is the person who needs to vent your friend or not?

My friends can vent, whine and use me as an unpaid therapist any day. They have earned that right. But I have a well-curated, very short list of friends who can rely on me as much as I can rely on them. They care about me. They listen to my problems. We support each other.

With acquainces or friends-of-friends, it depends on how much I like them, but I will usually indulge them, say, the first one or two times. But after that I establish boundaries.

With a person like OP described, though, I would be very short. I have no patience for emotional leeches.

Here is what I did to someone like that. No guarantee that it will work for you.

When they start whining about their life, nod understandingly and ask "so what are you going to do about it?"

When they complain that they just need someone to vent to, frown disapprovingly and insist that they need to solve this problem. "Did you try this?" "Why did you do this?" "You should do this."

In short, stop being someone comfortable to talk to.

Now, i give this advice because you said that cutting them off was not on the table. Because today, I would just tell them to leave me tf alone with their whining and go about my own business. But I'm a cranky grown-ass woman now.