This is what happens when you work yourself almost to death.

Yikes! A cautionary tale, to be sure. Glad to hear you're back on an even keel; a bit of time to recharge your batteries and reconnect with the basics of life sounds ideal. This is also a good time to read that Serious Book you always meant to get around to, so as to keep your mind exercised without falling back into its habitual grooves.

I think that looking after ourselves is a problem for a lot of 'knowledge workers'. William gibson said it best, in Neuromancer:

For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall. In the bars he'd frequented as a cowboy hotshot, the elite stance involved a certain relaxed contempt for the flesh. The body was meat. Case fell into the prison of his own flesh.

I thought it was pretty much settled that the old "stress causes ulcers" theory was a myth and that current medical knowledge is that ulcers are usually caused by the H. Pylori bacteria.

I always felt sorry for the poor guys that would get ulcers and then everyone piles on about how they need to relax. No, it turns out they just needed antibiotic.