A feeling of
intense anxiety and/or psychological distress. Literally "letter
pain". Named after the feeling anyone residing in
Germany gets after seeing they have letters in their postbox. To be used literally or metaphorically.
LITERAL:
"Hey, wanna go for a späti beer?"
"Can't dude, just saw a letter from the finanzamt and the briefschmerz is REAL"
METAPHORICAL
"
OMG my
boss called me in for a meeting and I thought I was in
trouble and I had a full on briefschmerz episode"