tailspin

1. (aviation) The rapid, uncontrollable descent of an aircraft in a steep spiral.Examples: "The loss of the third engine threw the plane into a tailspin."

2. (figuratively) A severe mental or emotional collapse; emotional breakdown.Examples: "Just hours after leaving the institution, she suffered another tailspin."figuratively

3. (figuratively) Any sharp, sustained, often uncontrollable descent or decline.Examples: "The present stock tailspin proves bankruptcy is imminent."; "But I was reading a statement that either you made or was part of your movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, and it said we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced."; "St. Louis, the fourth-largest U.S. city in 1900, is fading fast […] . Jobs, and airline, an educated population—all gone or in a tailspin."figuratively