Bouncing an Empathy Check...

yes, but i find it's a very temporary thing usually cured by a little perspective and fresh air.

pretty much my permanent state, esp the entropy thing.

h, check your email.

gygax! I keep refreshing, not seeing anything.

...a hard state to be in, Stence -- and I have nothing I can add in terms of direct advice, I fear. But I've spent a good chunk of this evening talking quietly with a trusted friend about my own lingering doubts and worries on various matters and I can (ironically enough) empathize with your own sense of a situation where it seems like there's a stasis that you find yourself locking into, sometimes in spite of your best efforts and other times almost because of them. Vague generalities, I admit, but I think you're doing the right thing by asking here if you're not feeling good about talking to your more immediate circle about it for those stated reasons -- it may help with a better perspective. Hope answers for you can come from it.

hmmm... still nothing?

Sometimes this is useful. If you lose patience and understanding and make it plain you don't want to be a doormat, it can remind people that they have to run their own lives, not get you to do it for them.

I did this at work the other day and feared the consequences, but so far they seem to be less requests for me to do stuff that isn't my job.

More and more these past few weeks do I know exactly what you are talking about, hstencil.