People who always compare misfortunes

I think it really falls on perspective. We have different experiences and different magnitutdes on how we felt by teat experience. When we share experiences, it's also kinda of a proud moment. If you experience some thing good, you feel proud and you would like the otehr person to feel it too. I think the same happens with sharing soemtihng bad. We like to portray ourselves as the one who suffered more so that people's attention will listen more to our story. It's really not about competition but your listener might feel left out if her experience is not worse than yours. Some might take is as competition as happened to you but otehr stake it as an experience as it is.

I think if they are a real friend they will listen without adding something worse. I think it depends on what kind of friend they are. I have had it happen to me plenty of times. I also don't appreciate when people say, your life could be worse... How do you know what MY life is like, past, present or the future?!?

It pushes the competition button, I have found myself sucked into this and only when reviewing the conversation been aware of the fact.

Oh I got irritated when this happened to me. I know a person who used to be like that every time we are talking and sharing things. He always have same story when someone tell something as if he is competing and always wanted to his story to be always the best. I just dont bothered myself as much as possible to avoid get annoyed.

I find the best way to stop this from happening is to find the right friends to talk about problems with. We have friends for other things, but there are only a special few who understand how to listen when you, empathize, give advice, and allow us to lean on them. We would do the same thing for these special friends. You just have to learn which of your friends listen. If none of them do, you may have to gain another friend with this important quality. Usually we all have at least one, though. Good luck.