Cat-fishing; The Act of a Troll or a Cry for Help?

After watching and discussing the Catfishing documentary the one emotion I felt for both sides was sadness sympathy. I felt sad for Nev simply because he had his emotions toyed with. “Megan” talked with him, wrote him songs, and did everything else in her power to forge a loving bond over the internet. At the end though, we learn that not only has Nev never actually talked to Megan, she never existed. He got lied to by Angela, Abby’s mom, not once but twice. First she told him that he never talked to her because she was locked up in a rehab center. At the very end, through the credits no less, we learn that Megan never existed. All the Facebook profiles that gave her existence credibility were all run by Angela. Every. Single. One. What must that have felt like? To fall in love in love with someone he will not only never meet, but someone who never existed in the first place? I’m not sure I have the words to actually express how that must have felt. Then, there is poor Angela. When Nev first starts to question whether Megan exists or not, I assumed she was just some troll trying to get a good laugh or maybe get some money out of Nev. The general catfishing purpose, if you will. But no. When Nev actually meets her and everything gets caught on camera, we see that this a clearly very sad woman in need of escape. She spends her time taking care of two severely handicapped children that aren’t really hers. They are her husbands from a past marriage. Combine that with not having a job or anything else going on besides painting, I would wager we would all look for an escape as well, whatever it might be. Some people use substances to escape their issues and stress. Others get up and leave and wash their hands of situations as a safety mechanism. Angela’s was seeking the affection from strangers in order to almost make herself feel better about her predicament. While I don't approve of her “hobby” I also understand that everyone needs an escape. It was just a crappy situation for everyone is what it comes down to. If there is indeed a lesson to be learned from this documentary, it is to get both sides of the story. Its easy to call Angela a bad person for doing this to people but once we see her actual life in the documentary the tables kind of change. We see her in a new light. Instead of being a simple troll looking for a good chuckle, we see a stressed out middle aged woman looking for some kind of remote escape. This doesn't excuse her actions whatsoever but it does make you understand why she is doing what she is doing