up against it
(idiomatic) In a very difficult position.
Synonym: up against the wall
Man is a strange animal. He generally cannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it. Adlai Stevenson II
One of the weaknesses of a democracy, a system of which I am trying to make the best, is that until it is right up against it it will never face the truth. Stanley Baldwin
Experts never seem to tell us what we're up against until we're up against it. William Feather
But since day one, we've always been kinda up against it. So at the end, it's not surprising that we were kind of led along for so many months and didn't know what the fate of the show was gonna be. It was... in a weird way, just kind of that was the way it's always been. Will Arnett
I think viewers quite like it when I'm suffering or eating or drinking something horrible or really up against it in some quicksand or whatever. Bear Grylls
We grew up in a very strange world, because my mother was up against it all when she had three black children. Jaye Davidson