I just want to ask if anyone has a decent strategy for beating the dreaded hell of the cover letter or additional information section of an application form?

We all know the 'rules'. The rest of the application is pretty easy but this is where you are supposed to sell yourself to the hilt, bleat about how utterly fantastic you are, how much you want to kill your granny for that role and how you would gladly run off to Vegas and marry that fabulous company if it were a person.

This isn't too difficult if you are in a stable career you like with appropriate qualifications and experience and you know where you want to go, but in this day and age there are many like myself who are unemployed and JUST WANT A JOB. At the moment I find myself looking at lots of jobs where I probably only half fit the position and know nothing about the role or the company/industry.In the past I have knocked myself sideways trying to contact people to show interest, research places and get experience to win people over but when all this repeatedly fails you become very unmotivated and cynical to say the least. I do have depression now which means job hunting is a real battle and this part of applications is my nemesis. I think it is the amount of time you have to devote to it that finishes me off. I really don't want to spend two days researching a place I'm not bothered about for a role I'm not that interested in that I only half fit and therefore most likely won't get. How do people get over this psychological barrier?