Existential angst. Sorry, had to stop at your first paragraph--sure I've been there, a huge number of us have ... In fact I'd bet most MI folks spend a bit more time turning that rubrics cube around than do the MH.

However, might not the point of your being alive here/now be that--although everything has all been done and thought before--you have never done or thought anything before. With your uniqueness attached, what has become "utterly pointless" may become renewed through your vision.

If you've read the Judao-Christian Bible, Ecclesiastes, we are told even that long ago that, "There is nothing new under the sun." Certainly would sound like a motivation-killer, doesn't it? But look at the Renaissance that flourished with its base in both philosophy and the arts.

Many of the most creative people of that period apparently wrestled with depression. Like so many artists, a large percentage seem likely to have been bipolar. Michaelangelo struggled with all the angst of his own time. But while he did, he stayed alive to search for answers, to create, to pay the bills.

He may have created nothing truly new, but oh! What a unique statement he's left us.