Met this really cool but anxious guy in the trade school I was attending up until the pandemic started. He had relocated for the class and did not know anyone or the city, plus his prescription for anxiety meds had gotten messed up so he wasnt feeling stable at times. I grew up being able to cope with stress and know the symptoms of panic attacks and legit could tell when he was about to cave in.

Well, we happened to have a teacher who would legit bully students into dropping out if he did not think they could succeed instead of having the exams/grading system filter them out naturally. (We actually had a student with mild autism whom he tried to turn the class against because he did not know how to handle the situation proplerly, among other petty shit)

Overall the teacher's dictatorship did not sit well with my peers. Often they would come to ask me questions/clarifications on the material presented (even on days I was late and missed said presentation). It got to the point where he would get mad at them for asking me instead of him. When they did, he would either; ridicule them while talking to another student "who got it right because they were listening" or just let them make the mistake and berate them for damaging parts afterwards.

Long story short, every time the teacher would get abusive and I would sense that my friend was about to have a panic attack, I would calmy answer or deflect the shit being flung and casually ask my friend to step out for some water/fresh air. We both ended up completing the course which started at 22 and ended with 8 students, to my teacher's dismay. My friend moved back home and got a job in the trade in no time. Fixed his meds and we now have the most stressful year of our live behind us (so far)

(Edit) For those that dont know, trade schools in my area can only make money if a set amount of students pass the class, so this POS would do his best to keep the numbers as low as possible and being the only eligible teacher for this course was untouchable, despite all of the complaints set against them. I tried to have a formal complaint made and the school admin had a fucking meeting to talk me out of it.

TL;DR I was a "therapy dog" for a friend and we both survived the most toxic year of our lives because of each other's support.