Deeply distressed, copper leading ram (3,2)
I believe the answer is:
cut up
'deeply distressed' is the definition.
(someone cut up by something is distressed by it)
'copper leading ram' is the wordplay.
'copper' becomes 'Cu' (Cu is the chemical symbol for copper).
'leading' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go in front of others).
'ram' becomes 'tup' (both can mean a male sheep).
'cu'+'tup'='CUT-UP'
(Other definitions for cut up that I've seen before include "Miserable" , "Dice, chop" , "so treated by another driver?" , "Deeply distressed (slang)" , "Extremely upset" .)