Does being a good listener make you more vulnerable to being taken advantage of?

I think there is no harm if I try to be a good listener. People share their problems with me and I give them to vent out. I do not think that I'm taken for ride. If I give them some advice, they consider it very patiently and try to act upon it. Sometimes, it feels bad, when someone tells you his problem and start giving the solutions himself, then I wonder, I was really a fool, who spared my valuable time to listen to him.

I think you have a point here. Im a shy person and dont really speak up enough. I am a good listener though and would describe myself as being a better listener than a talker. People who do not talk much and are shy could be seen as being "soft" in comparisson to people who always speak their minds. There are people like this though who do not listen properly and this can give them their own problems.

I have always been a good listener and... yes people have taken advantage of it.I find that many people like to hear the sound of their own voices and these are the persons who will go on and on without having any regard of their listeners feelings. One would like to categorize them as bores. I usually switch off when such people get into their groove and keep looking at them but let my mind go where ever it wants.

Hi Kyle, I learned something from Eric Berne on the vicious cycle of people who wants to be listened and the people who would like to listen. The people who wants to be heard had this unconscious thinking of himself. he is a victim or he needs help. It is like that he is someone who would like to get some help from you. Now, you are thinking of helping him by listening to his problem. But, something in his mind that you have not explored, he does not need some help, he only needs someone to castigate, someone that he will say, "Well, you are no damn good coz your advices do not work". Here is a simple analogy, Mr White likes to ask for some advices, so Mr. Black listens to his problem. Then Mr. Black suggested that Mr. white do this, however, Mr. White has always some reasons not to do it. Then Again the generous Mr. White suggested this, that, and all those stuff. Mr. Black responded by pitting them with some reasons. In reality what Mr. White wants is not someone to listen and give him advice but someone whom he can say, "You are also Damn!". In this way, take some time to listen to their problems and let them solve their problems. Always tell them, you can do that, and they will not have to go on through the vicious cycle.