I just wanted to reach out and say I think feeling depressed and overwhelmed by the thought of returning to life-work is part of the process.

I suspect that the emotional roller coaster of wanting to return to normal life- work and yet feeling overwhelmed by the idea is proof that we are not quite there yet.

It must be instinctual - to protect ourselves from putting ourselves in stressful situations. We actively try to figure out how much to exert ourselves until we trigger symptoms- but perhaps our psyche is also trying to protect us from exerting too much.

There must be a sweet spot-of feeling good and ready enough- to return to life-work.

I'm not there yet, but with everyone's support and guidance on this forum, I begin to trust myself.

I hope you are having a better time and trust yourself to feel and to know that you are where you are. And this is good enough for now.