cabin fever

In the current sense coined or popularized in a novel of the same name in 1918. See cite below.

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cabin fever (uncountable)

1. (psychology) A condition of restlessness and irritability caused by being in a confined space.

   Some residents of Alaska suffer from cabin fever when they remain indoors throughout the long, snowy winters.

   • 1918, B. M. Bower, Cabin Fever, page 1:

     Just as the body fed too long upon meat becomes a prey to that horrid disease called scurvy, so the mind fed too long upon monotony succumbs to the insidious mental ailment which the West calls "cabin fever."

   • 2004, Lois Olson, Meeting Him in the Wilderness: A True Story of Adventure and Faith, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 102:

     The novelty of a wilderness winter wore off. I began to suffer from cabin fever. I was so anxious to see someone that whenever I heard a car or truck motor, I jumped up on a chair to look out.

2. (obsolete) Typhus.
   • 1820, The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 128, page 139:

     The certain consequence is the low typhus or cabin fever, which at all times, and at this present moment, exists in Ireland to a degree, that in any other country would create a serious alarm.

• claustrophobia
• stir-crazy

• cabin fever on Wikipedia.Wikipedia