Hi Antiventurecapital,
I really like your contributions to this thread. It can be difficult if your altruistic side almost attracts people to you with problems and its in your nature to desire to help fix them. I've been there. Helplessness is an emotion I find quite humbling. It's useful to learn people need to work things out for themselves. We also benefit from working certain things out about ourselves. Why is it that we have this deep desire to sacrifice ourselves to help others?
In some cases, its easier to walk away from negative people who dump problems on you. You can discontinue a friendship, and distance yourself from certain family members. However, in other cases, like if a partner or parents or in-laws evolve to be like this, it's not as easy to walk away. Maybe that's a good thing since people reflect things we need to learn too.
I like your story about the woman who expressed she had faith that you could solve your own problems, then left. This is an approach I have used. I'm also in the process of writing another motivational book and I've been giving segments of the draft to a typical negative thinker to edit. She has actually been progressively changing her own attitude of her own accord, while she has also provided me useful input. Just like you, I find that empowering others to make their own decisions is a good way to go. My approaches and motives also teach me a lot about myself
Best wishes,