Word endings and depths

My next two archive posts are

To the nth degree (where I mainly discuss words ending -th)

and Going Down!  This was my first attempt at a Daily Prompt.  I made life difficult for myself by keeping my regular style of blogging and avoiding three-letter words!

Now any responses I make to the Daily Prompt appear on my other blog, Sue’s Trifles.

My second archive post ends with a Psalm, which may be helpful for people suffering with anxiety and depression.  This week is Mental Health Awareness Week.

What are you worrying about?

Much ado about nothing
is the title of one of William Shakespeare’s comedies.

What a to-do!

This means a fuss.  The Oxford Concise Dictionary gives the derivation from “What’s to do?”  Nowadays we might say “What needs doing?” or “What needs to be done?”

What’s to do?
can also mean “What’s the matter?” or “Why are you upset?”

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
is the first line of a traditional song.  The second line is “Johnny’s so long at the fair.”  If you don’t know the song, the lyrics are available if you click on the link.  They might make you laugh!

In a flap
is a similar expression.  Ladies’ full skirts flap when they bustle about.

Make a fuss.

Sometimes this is the right thing to do.

Don’t make a song and dance about it
is a more colourful way of saying  “Don’t make a fuss!”

Don’t just stand there; do something!
There’s an emergency of some sort.

When someone is worried they may feel they are
in deep water
or
out of their depth.

I’m throng.

A throng is a crowd.  Here it is “very busy”.  The same situation could elicit any of the next four expressions.

I’m meeting myself coming back.

I don’t know which way to turn.

I’m running round in (small) circles.

I can’t see the wood for the trees.

The last of these deserves a second look.  If you are in a wood, you can only see the trees.  You have to distance yourself from the wood to see it in its entirety (or one side of it anyway!)  It is the same with problems and difficulties.

Don’t look so worried.
People have often said this to me, especially as a child!

To be beside oneself/ out of one’s mind with worry
and worried sick are traditional expressions.
Anxiety and depression count as illnesses nowadays.  And rightly so – they can be very debilitating.
Left untreated they can drive you round the bend (crazy).

I’m at the end of my tether.
Goat’s are tethered to a pole.  The end of the rope or tether at full stretch is as far as they can go.  Someone using this expression is usually feeling stressed and that they cannot do much more.

They may even be past caring
and feel that they have had enough.

Someone trying to console a worried or sad person may have the following advice to offer:-

Don’t lose any sleep over it
 or
don’t dwell on it. (Dwell is an old word for inhabit or live in.  Going over and over something doesn’t usually make it better.  But you do have to come to terms with it.)

Four more ways of giving good advice.

Put it behind you.

Keep things in proportion.

Rise above it.

Don’t let them get to you.

 

Take a deep breath.
This helps to calm the nerves.  If someone is hyperventilating, they can be encouraged to breathe into a paper bag and keep it over their mouth and nose until their breathing is more normal.  I’m told that breathing in more carbon dioxide helps to reduce the heart rate.

The use of “mind” as a verb is interesting.  Never you mind means don’t let it trouble you.

In St John’s Gospel Chapter 14 verse 1 (NIV) Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me”.

I don’t mind has a few meanings.  It doesn’t bother me.  I don’t have a preference.

Cheer up!
is an instruction to become happier.  This can be easier said than done.

St Paul writing to the Philippians Chapter 4 verse 6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

And he follows it with a promise of peace.