emotional cripple

plural emotional cripples

1. idiomaticoffensiveA person who has been rendered indecisive, alienated, uncaring, confused, or helpless through experiencing debilitating emotions, such as worry, fear, panic, despair, etc.

   His mother's affliction was "panic disorder with agoraphobia, which made her an emotional cripple for many years."

   1999 April 24, Sarah Boxer, “Think Tank: A Son's Simple Diagnosis of His Father's Complexities”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 Jan 2013

   2 more examples

   The truth is I was an emotional cripple when I met her, drunk more often than not, punishing myself for doing things that went against my nature.

   1997, Mordecai Richler, Barney's Version, →ISBN

   [I]f I ever come across as a maladjusted, socially isolated, sad, hunched emotional cripple (I'm thinking mainly of Sunday mornings in February, here), then it's those four weeks of having to wear short trousers in September 1964 that are to blame.

   2002, Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time, →ISBN, page 9

   Synonyms: basket case