Your Experiences with Art Block?

I haven't drawn anything worthwhile in ages, and it's really bothering me! I keep TRYING to... but it's hard to pick up the tablet pen, and when I do, I don't have the motivation to draw anything. I find myself doing endless studies because I get frustrated by my shortcomings when drawing from imagination... but of course I'll never improve if I keep relying on a crutch like this.

I keep a digital sketchbook of sorts, which I started in 2012; I fill a folder with numbered pages of sketches so then I can see my output and progress at a glance. It's disheartening comparing last year's to this one's, though; I filled 298 pages of varying quality last year, but I'm only up to 170 this year and most aren't any good at all. Last year was all about trying new things, and almost every page looks different, but I seem to have fallen into a rut now where I'm not really experimenting - or even learning much - anymore, so the thumbnails of most of my recent pages look the same.

I feel like I'm thinking about art all wrong, though. I want to draw because I want to make arty friends... but when I seek people out here, most have little reason to watch me because I don't produce anything particularly pretty, or very often. So I end up feeling like I NEED to make art just so then people who visit my page will have some reason to actually like me... which is fairly sad.

My loneliness holds me back, though; it's hard to work or draw or be happy when the only communication you have is through occasional comments with strangers on the other side of the planet (that's why I often write these long journals; my words aren't spent elsewhere). I feel like I need to be happy to draw inspiring things, but like I need to draw inspiring things if I'm to receive the kind of attention that might bring me happiness.

But then I feel so ungrateful because I know that I already have watchers... and the main reason I struggle to gain as much happiness from that as I should is because I struggle to reply to comments (it's tough to find the energy with all these woes weighing down on me, and I often end up deleting my responses before sending them).

UHHH... I didn't mean to go on about that, though!! Sorry. Mainly I just wanted to ask you what your experiences with art block have been like. What you've done to break through it, how you keep yourself motivated. And confident! Another reason I struggle is because I assume that anything I'll try will turn out badly; I don't know what it's like to KNOW I'm good at something to the point where drawing it is comfortable and easy.

I wish writing these journals would lead to happiness of some kind, but I can't help but feel that instead they're just unwelcome moodiness cluttering up peoples' otherwise pleasant inboxes or something...