You can win sympathy and still lose responsibility.

It is entirely possible to tell a situation in a way that leaves everyone feeling sorry for you and nothing improved. Sympathy is a real comfort and sometimes it is what you need, but it can also become a substitute for the harder work, since being understood feels a bit like being helped.

After you have been heard, ask yourself what changes now. If the answer is nothing, the telling was comfort rather than progress, which is fine as long as you know that is what it was. Then pick up the part that is yours.