"You're smart, you'll figure it out"

Here's the situation:

Friend: How's the thesis going?
Me: Do you really want to get me started on that?
F: Of course, how's it going?
M: I don't know. My advisors are nearly absent from the process and I'm really struggling to meet my latest deadline.
F: Well, you're smart, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

What's wrong with this, you might ask. Friend is clearly showing confidence in my abilities to handle my thesis. The problem is the implication that just because I'm smart that I should magically be able to handle any situation that comes my way. The truth of the matter is that my thesis is the largest project of my entire career. I think that working on, and coming to the end of, the defining project of my career is a good reason for me to fret. I think that it has earned me the right to be worried about it. And having someone just wipe those feelings aside because "I'm smart" is enough to make me want to scream.