Bizarre question

It's not at all weird.

You need to remove "on." "Shouldering an emotional burden" is fine.

Thanks - I missed that. I was foucsed on whether the metaphor worked and missed the extra word.

khoffShouldering an emotional burden

what exactly does it mean?

"Shouldering" here essentially mans "carrying on your shoulders." An "emotional burden" is an ongoing mental or emotional problem. So the sentence means having an emotional problem that makes you feel as if you were carrying a heavy weight on your shoulders -- being "weighed down" emotionally rather than physically. So you might say something like "Don't be offended if John seems distracted l