After talking with a couple of friends today, I've come to the conclusion that there is an epidemic of depression going around.

One is a friend I've known for years. She was telling me that she was having a hard time geting the energy or ambition to want to write....that she had a lot she wanted to but the drive just wasn't there.

The other friend is one I've known for about a year and I met on-line and with whom I have done some colaborative writing. He was saying that a game we both play was just not that much fun anymore.....that he almost didn't play today and that it was to the point that his wife was asking him what was wrong. Writing has become more of a chore too.....

I can empathize with both of them. I've been in a rut myself for a while now. I have several projects I'd like to do and when I sit down to type....I find myself wondering where to start. I know....at the beginning....but where is that? I look at little things I've scribbled down and bits that I've written and I think to myself "what utter crap" so its hard....very hard to move forward.

I know that we are our own worst judges...at least those of us who take pride in what we do. I've always been one of those people no matter if it were practicing Kata, building a swimming pool, training soldiers or writing stories. I've always wanted things to be perfect. When you are in that rut....when the depression is there, nothing seems good enough.....no matter how close to perfect it is. Its a circle....a viscious circle....things aren't good enough so you get depressed so things that you do don't seem good enough so you get depressed so things you do ......

How do you break the circle? I mean, if realizing it existed and that you were in it was enough I'd be on top of the world. How in the hell do you get out of the rut? How do you escape the cycle?