These past few days I've been feeling down and I can't quite figure out if it's SAD finally coming in or something else. I normally struggle with SAD starting in about November but this year I had no problems at all, probably the best holiday season I've had in years. On Monday I was feeling blah and felt like skipping my support group, which I normally really enjoy. Then in group I got some information that made me unhappy and I've been feeling crappy ever since; I also felt annoyed with my group members. Last night I finally started feeling better emotionally but then I got severe cramps for about 30 minutes. And today I slept in much longer than normal.
The only thing that has changed recently is caffeine intake. For many months, maybe 6, I've been caffeine-free, but last week I started drinking coffee in the mornings. Dh was on vacation and he drinks coffee and I just kind of fell into the habit. I've been having about 10 oz of weak coffee and I haven't really felt it affect me much. In the past it gave me a bit of anxiety or a jittery feeling, but I haven't noticed much of that at all, only a slight irritation when I'm out driving in traffic. However I do find that it keeps me up much later at night even if I have it early in the day, say before noon.
I'm now wondering if the caffeine is causing the depressed feelings. It seems counter intuitive though. I promised myself that I would stop the coffee and test out the theory today but I buckled. It always surprises me how quickly coffee becomes an ingrained habit and hard to break.
Anybody else ever have this weird reaction to caffeine? Or find that it exacerbates SAD?