What does “unter Strom stehen” mean in German?

Describing parents of seriously ill children, this farm’s founder says they are sehr angespannt und stehen unter Strom — “very tense and under a lot of pressure.” Unter Strom stehen literally means “to stand under (electrical) current,” the same phrase used for a live wire. Applied to a person, it vividly captures being wound up, wired, and running on adrenaline rather than rest.

The electrical metaphor runs both ways in German: jemanden unter Strom setzen means “to get someone worked up,” while the calmer opposite is entspannt sein (“to be relaxed,” literally “un-tensed”). Here, the farm exists precisely to let those “live-wire” parents hand their children’s care over for a while and, for once, switch off.