Makes sense that driving would make a guy wary after what you been through. How could a couple main support network people gain from what you could do for them? Small towns have zero anonymity and they know everybody's business going back decades+. That can work for you. Maybe shoot the shit with them and keep your ears open for a small start in these quarters. Do some favors big or small, word will spread. Sounds like you had a good doc to get on your feet and get your strength back. What vitamin mineral sups do you take? Plenty of D3? What skills would a good collaborator have?
You need to pace yourself otherwise you are going to be exhausted but your mind is still excited and psyched and you can't sleep and when you can't sleep, you get so stressed because you are still exhausted and the vicious cycle just continues until you are finally able to relax to sleep and you get a bit of calm until you get excited about a new project and the whole cycle just starts again... Pacing yourself is hard to do especially if you are on a roll but that's what you need to do. Set like a goalpost or pitstop in your project and say to yourself once I finish this, once I reach this point, I will take a break. You have to do that otherwise you are going to burn out cuz and then only when you've stopped, you realize how tired you are otherwise when you are working, your mind is too excited to realize how tired you actually are. I work the same away. When I get sucked into a new project, I can't stop until it's all finished cuz when you are on a roll, one thing is leading to another and you don't want your train of thoughts to get interrupted. You want to work with the momentum but once you are finished, you are so exhausted!! I had to learn to force myself to stop. Yeah I can't stand bosses, especially incompetent ones who still want to tell you what to do. The more incompetent they are, the more they feel they need to tell you what to do... LOL I have only met a few ones who are nice enough to leave me alone to let me do my own thing and just guide me and remind me things here and there, most are just annoying. This is why I took up trading, no bosses!! The only bosses that I listen to are myself and the market. So far, it's working out well.