How is 'doch' on it's own an appropriate answer to 'how are you?'

Language Corner
1
It seems to me the default answer of a (german speaking) Swiss person to the question "how are you" in there native tongue is either:

1. "Danke" -but not "guet danke" or "schlecht, danke" just danke..... Thank you for asking, but no answer to the question.

2. "Doch" This is something I only recently started picking up on: "doch" can also be used to avoid answering "how are you"

OFTEN it is used to buy time while coming up with a suitable answer, but lately I've heard people answer with a succesion of "dochs" trailing off to an inaudible infinity.

ie. "wie häsch es!?" "doch. doch-doch . doch. doch hmnnrghnnnn ....."

3. a long tirade about how stressed and this and that and the heaters broken and the dog has lice and the mother in law is over and blah blah blah wish you'd never asked. (EF has NOTHING on some swiss people when it comes to TMI)

2
Only in Züri.

My local natives tend to reply: u horä güet.

3
I do get the occasional "verschise aber nöd hoffnigslos" (verschissen aber nicht hoffnungslos)

4
I only know the aforementioned "doch" as a positive answer to a negative question. Never heard anyone reply with a "doch" to a "how are you?".

Geht's dir nicht gut?

Doch! Mir geht's gut!

5
See but like that it makes SENSE. so I can HANDLE that. but the other way?! blows my mind.

maybe it is just zurich. I just picked it up right now as 2 gentlemen infront of me had pretty much the exact conversation that I documented in this thread. I was like "huh!? you can't just say doch! can you?"

6

In this sense it's:

"Yes, well, so-so, quite well really...."

7
I interpret it as a shrug-of-the-shoulders you-know-yourself kind of response.

8
You mean like this ???

9
Since we are in language corner and you guys seem to know these things how do you say "bollocks" in Swiss German. This will come in real useful.

10
The correct translation for "bollocks" would be "eier" but it doesn't really work when you say oh bollocks. For that you would need to say scheisse or merde or just plain old **** works too.

11
i normally use Kacke, vollmies, schrott, quatsch.

another useful term is "softeggs"

12

i think u hora guet is just fine , just fine .........

13
kind of...

i thought it (kind of) meant "damned good"..

and huerä literately means whore..

so "whore-ly good" ?

(link goes to alternative swiss german dictionary, and i found it on the net, so it must be true (!))