student asking question

How come “mess up” refers to "hurt someone's mind"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question! The word "mess" can refer to anything that is cluttered and disorganized, including your mind. When your mind is "messed up" it means that your thoughts are no longer organized and you are confused or not thinking clearly. So in this case, "it really messed me up" is a metaphorical way to describe his upset mind by describing that it like his thoughts and emotions became messy.

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