the.com/nervous wreck
A person whose nervous system filed for early retirement and left anxiety in charge.
means Someone so overwhelmed by stress or worry that they're physically and emotionally falling apart.
from Built from 'nervous' (from Latin nervosus, relating to the nerves/sinews) plus 'wreck' (from Old Norse 'wrek,' something driven ashore, ruined). The phrase emerged in the 1800s as medicine was newly obsessed with 'nerves' as the seat of mental and physical health — so a person undone by strain was pictured as a ship smashed on the rocks, except the rocks were their own frayed nervous system.
- origin
- wreck implied total collapse, like a shipwreck
- first recorded
- popularized in early 1900s American slang
- physiology
- cortisol spikes mimic actual danger, body cant tell difference
- irony
- often caused by things that havent happened yet