A friend of mine and classmate is a real life example of this trope. In the past year and a half, he has placed himself in situations where he has done poorly on exams, missed job interviews and gotten into some really rotten situations because when someone needs help, he always gives help. In fact, he often does it when a person doesn't ask for help, which is part of why he gets into trouble. However, when one of the people he had helped starting telling the story of how he helped her and what it had cost him and how he still continued to help people despite that, my friend, when asked why he did it, could only say, "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help." That is why he's my friend.

By the way, the story of the girl he helped mentioned above is a perfect example of how he just gets screwed when helping people. The girl got really drunk. None of her friends wanted to deal with her. The guy wanted to make sure she got home OK. She started to cross the street as he was catching up to her when she stepped in the way of a car. He pulls her out of the way and in the process, gets swiped by the car himself. The car doesn't stop, he's on the curb and the girl is on her rear on the sidewalk. She starts screaming and we come by. She then tells us that he pushed her down after trying to feel her up. We only find out what really happened after she sobered up, remembered what really happened and then got over her embarrassment of it. Needless to say, it was a few months where we thought he was a creep. And yet, he still kept helping people. That is Chronic Hero Syndrome. I wish more people had it like he did.

Why? Everything you said justifies why some things are SomebodyElsesProblem and that you really have to think of yourself at some point. That girl sounds like a total bitch and a drama queen, and no one told her to get wasted and alienate her friends.

So it's cool to let her get hit by a car?

And for all her "bitch"iness, she sounds like a perfectly rational and good human being who just got drunk one night and simply needed help to me. Not that it should matter.

If it's perfectly normal and rational to piss off your friends, get drunk to the point that you can't cross the street without damn near getting hit, and make it sound like the guy who saved your life is a rapist (a serious accusation) because you're too embarrassed to admit you're drunk out of your mind, then you can call me weird anyday. I hate being with people who drink themselves stupid when they go out.

And so... people should just stand by at let them get hurt or killed? O_o Dead people learn no lessons. Furthermore? Someone who's drunk off their ass ''isn't'' rational. Perhaps you forgot that little detail?

It's also not rational to get ''that'' drunk in the first place. A little self-control goes far.

This troper has a bit of it too. Someone (a psychiatric nurse, to be specific) once called him "Captain Save-a-ho" after hearing about his attempts to improve things for someone who wouldn't take the hint, and he later went broke from a very comfortable situation due to similar endeavours.

This troper has tendencies in that direction, which is how she ends up as MamaBear to friends who have emotional problems. She just seems to have a knack for attracting wounded nestlings under her wings. She has a friend who is trying very hard to help her at least scale back the extent of her save-the-world mentality, but...

This troper has been accused of having this on occasion, being the rock everyone turns to when things get bad and offering common sense advice. I don't see it; as far as I'm concerned, I'm just doing what I consider to be the right thing.

My karate teacher, while paying for gas, saw a man hold two girls, inside their car, at shotgun point. He told the cashier to call 911, and he stormed off to stop the man with the shot gun. He ran up, pushed the gun skywards, and threw the man down. My karate teacher took away the shotgun and unloaded it (An by unload, I mean he took the bullets out, not shoot the assailant). The cashier turned out to be an undercover cop, and when the police came, they came in droves. However, he was treated with a WhatTheHellHero treatment by the cops for stopping the assailant, saying that he could have hurt himself. Because, you know, two girls at gun point are totally not going to be hurt.

The police had no idea he knew how to handle himself, as far as they were concerned he was another innocent who could get in the way, although they should have said good job before the WhatTheHellHero.

This troper has often found it impossible not to help someone who asked for help or was visibly in need of help, even if the situation made him feel like a gullible idiot both during and afterwards, which he sometimes probably was. Most of it was really just common courtesy, though; the only problem is that it often doesn't seem nearly as common around here as it should be.

This troper seems to be the school psychologist. Everyone comes to him to talk about their problems, and it's usually girls. It's helped, actually. He once kept a friend from commiting suicide, and was later there for her when she DID try and failed, and he kept her from relapsing.

This troper has elements of it. I've managed to keep from any major consequences though, luckily. I do get really down when I see someone in trouble and I'm unable to help though.

This Troper is caused much angst by this ailment. The Messiah in all it's glory it seems.

This Troper's friend had a serious case of this syndrome. She just couldn't say 'no' to anyone "Hey, would you sharpen my pencil for me?" "Sure.", "Could you fetch me a drink from the café?" "Glad to help.", "Would you write my essay? C'mon, help a friend in need!" "Don't worry, I'll get it done.". Eventually, I just had to seat her down and order her to be sometimes a selfish bastard for the sake of her mental health.

It didn't stick did it? A few tried that with me...turns out my guilt is stronger than them.

This Troper is practically unselfish to a fault.He is normally quiet and reserved,but the moment someone is in trouble,he can't just stand by and do nothing.If he was a character who had was given powers,he'd JumpedAtTheCall to become TheCape.Despite being slightly cynical.He also feels like the poster boy for NoGooDDeedGoesUnpunished.

Are you me?

This troper suffers from it in spades. For the past... 5 years? I have stuck my neck out for everyone I see, even when they don't want it. And I also have this tendency to bite off so much more than I can chew. The two don't mix all too well. In my latest project, I am currently trying to do a drug intervention for my high school class. All of the 130 stoners of the 150-person class. Um... oops?

This troper tends to have this. I've put myself willingly in situations that make me look idiotic afterward just because I felt it was the right thing to do. It almost really is chronic.

This troper mainly deals in giving people things, but I do help generally. If someone says they need money for something, even if I know damn well they probably don't, I give it to them. If someone mentions that they need "X" and I have "X", even if I might need it in the future, I'll give it to them. If someone were to ask for help fixing their car or doing yard work or something, I would do it as long as I didn't have an important obligation at the time, even if it was basically a total stranger. I'm pretty broke all the time, since I never ask for reimbursement. But I'm not really being selfless; doing stuff like that makes me feel liked and needed, and as is mentioned on the main page, I have a codependent personality.

I have a serious case of this. When someone is in need of help, I help them, and if for some reason I'm unable to help someone, I feel guilty.

I've got this big time. I usually end up acting like a hero for people who no one else seems to care about. Once, I was in an outpatient treatment program for depression, and most of the day everyone was in a group together, no matter what they were there for. The doctors there treated all of us like crap, telling kids who were having trouble at home that it was all their fault and bullshit like that, but the people who got the most grief were the people who were there for drug addiction. Every time the doctors would start berating someone, I'd stick up for them even if I didn't know them. The doc who was my case manager gave me a lot of crap for it and said I should stop because some people weren't "worth the heroics."

This Troper has had a serious case of this, but has gradually been learning ''to be more selfish''. It would be great if he could always help everyone, but too many people have taken his kindness as "oh hey, he's a doormat, lets walk all over him!". He is short a lot of money (beyond one thousand Euros) due to this. However, it's still hard to suppress the urge to help someone in need. It has translated into Video Games too; he always must heal everyone or save players being attacked via distraction, even if it ends up costing him his own life.

This troper is a strange example of an emotional rock among people with serious issues. I've stayed over at strange apartments to prevent alcoholic self injury caused by deep seated depression and dealt with old traumas. That said I really don't connect with people, and most of the time I'm sociopathic to the point of almost lacking sapience. I must have talked my now ex out of killing herself at least 5 times when I was with her. I'd do it all again and if a time comes when she needs help again I'll be there still. For some reason having little to no emotional reaction makes you a really good counselor.