No Sympathy

Why do some people feel the need to have sympathy from others? I can't understand this behavior because sympathy is not something that would want to elicit from anyone. Sympathy, in my mind, means there is something wrong and that I cannot deal with it. This is different that support, where there may be something wrong, but others support you in overcoming the challenge.

So back to my original question. I know someone that seems to need sympathy from other. So much in fact that they will create situations for the sole purpose of garnering sympathy. They will even go so far as to create fictitious stories to achieve this. A close friend told me that it is futile to try and understand this behavior as it has not rational explanation. Even trying to analyze it from an emotional view will result in the same state of futility.

Instead, I have come to the conclusion that I need to avoid this person, or if I cannot avoid them, to go into any interaction with the knowledge that sympathy is their goal and to not acknowledge it. It's not that I'm trying to be mean, it's just that present a front of dispassion will both protect me from being drawn into the drama invariably occurs and will eventually cause the other person to stop since they do not get what they want from me.

I'm still wrestling with this and I'm sure I will write more about it as time goes on and we see how this develops.