Anyone else losing their mind being stuck at home healing for months on end?

Oh my gosh YES. I was about eight months post-accident and I remember telling my partner I felt like I was aging in fast-forward just from sitting still so long. The restless energy with nowhere to go is so real and honestly nobody warns you about it. The physical healing gets all the attention but this psychological grind is its own injury. You're not alone in this at all.

What you're describing — that buzzing, trapped energy — is actually really common during extended recovery and people don't talk about it enough. Your nervous system and your brain are still running at their pre-injury pace even though your body can't keep up. A few things that helped some of my patients: very short "task sprints" (even something tiny like organizing one drawer) just to get a small hit of accomplishment, and being intentional about sunlight exposure every single day. Also, if you're not already talking to someone about the depression piece specifically, please do. It's as real as any physical symptom and it deserves treatment too.

I just want to say I read every word of this and I felt it. The part about trying hobbies and them all sitting in a corner judging you made me laugh and feel sad at the same time. You're clearly fighting hard. That matters even when it doesn't feel like it does.

I know this probably sounds annoying when you're in the thick of it, but the fact that you're self-monitoring for depression, doing the slow walks, trying things even when they don't stick — that's honestly a lot. You haven't checked out. That counts for something. The version of you that comes out the other side of this is going to be weirdly resilient in ways you can't see yet.

Forget turning a hobby into a business right now — that's future-you's problem. For right now: is there anything purely mental you've been curious about? Coding, a language, reading in a genre you never touched? Your brain can go hard even when your body can't. Sometimes giving your mind a genuine challenge scratches that restless itch a little. Not a cure, but it kept me sane.

How much of your day is genuinely structured vs. just open-ended? I ask because I went through a long recovery too and I found that unstructured time made the restlessness so much worse. Like having a loose plan for each day — even a dumb one — changed things more than any specific activity did.

Not legal advice at all, just want to flag something since you mentioned you may need another procedure — make sure whoever is handling your case knows about every setback, every new diagnosis, every day you couldn't function. Loss of enjoyment of life, inability to work, these prolonged psychological effects — they're all part of damages. Document how you're feeling, even just in a personal journal. It matters more than most people realize. Seriously, just keep notes.

Also want to add — if you're dealing with any insurance communication right now, be careful about what you post publicly and what you say to adjusters about "feeling better some days." They will absolutely use that framing against you. "Oh the claimant said they had good energy this week" gets twisted. I'm not saying hide how you feel, just be thoughtful.