Imagine yourself in a rowboat struggling to reach a safe dock on a day when the winds are high and the seas are rough. The winds keep pushing you down the shore, away from the dock. You pull on the oars with all your might, but cannot defeat the elements. Your muscles are exhausted, your hands are raw and bloody, and you are soaked wet and cold.
Finally, just as your boat is turned at exactly the wrong angle, a large wave comes and flips it over. You are under the water, tumbling over and over until you no longer have any idea which way is up and which way is down.
You are overwhelmed.
The word overwhelmed is derived from the Middle English word whelmen, which referred to the action of turning something upside down. In its contemporary usage, to be overwhelmed is to feel completely engulfed and defeated by something that is too powerful to resist.
An overwhelming force can be physical. When people are overwhelmed in an emotional sense, however, they can be left unable to function by the symbolic force of a single word, gesture, or idea, as if the tsunami that threatens to drown them exists nowhere but within their minds.
