There could be multiple causes to your morning depression, especially if it happens every morning for the past few years. First, if you are constantly in a state of stress and anxiety, your cortisol levels peak every morning at 7 a.m., and can be the cause of your morning depression. The body stores cortisol during sleep.

Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland. During the day, your cortisol hormone declines, and by night-time, it's undetectable. But, by morning, it reaches its peak and the surge of cortisol can cause serious morning depression, especially in women (doesn't matter what age you are, it's related to when your adrenal gland peaks your cortisol levels).

If you are a poor sleeper, awake at night due to insomnia caused by anxiety, then you're setting up your adrenal gland to malfunction. You won't be able to release cortisol at a normal rate. Instead, it builds up to excess, then gets released at once, in the morning time, and creates the depression symptoms. The only way to reverse this, is to help your adrenal gland reset.

That means, going to bed at the same time every night, finding a way to get rid of the feelings of anger, anxiety and depression from the day (exercise or whatever works for the person), because those negative feelings cause your cortisol levels to increase. It can take a few weeks to reset your adrenal gland and lower your cortisol production levels, to get rid of your morning depression. Changing your antidepressant dosage won't have any effect on getting rid of your morning depression, because it is probably related to your adrenal gland and cortisol hormone.

Next, there is the environment around you. You could suffer from "daylight depression." Do you spend a lot of time outside in the sunshine, or is most of your time spent indoors? If you spend more time inside, away from natural light, you could be experiencing ongoing SAD (seasonal affective disorder) which is easily fixed with a sunlight that you can buy off the internet or get from your doctor via prescription. You sit in front of the sunlight box for a period of time each day.

Then, you could be depleted in iron, vitamin B1, B6, B12, vitamin d, or magnesium. All of these vitamin deficiencies cause serious depression (in both genders). If you do an internet search, research medical journals, you can read the studies and research that shows what mood-related symptoms come with low vitamin and mineral levels in the body.

Then, there's the inflammation factor, related to what you eat and drink on a regular basis. Studies show that inflammation in the body can cause anxiety attacks, depression, and hives. If you eat nothing but processed foods, or don't eat regularly, you are again stressing out your adrenal gland, messing with your metabolism, and if both are malfunctioning, your mood can take a nose dive. You can find yourself in a perpetual state of depression. Add a few vegetables and fruits to your daily food, cut back on soda, beer, and processed food like bread, ice cream, candy and replace it with real food. You'll start feeling better. Studies show that eating real food also can release endorphins the same way that exercise does.

Also, change the time of day that you exercise to early mornings if you don't already exercise during that time. If you exercise later in the day or at night, again, you're messing with your stored cortisol hormone and stressing out your adrenal gland to build excess cortisol levels while you sleep, that then get released in the morning. If you add exercise in the morning, that will help release the excess cortisol hormone levels and produce the happy feeling of endorphins.

Also, aside from the cortisol issue, there's also the thyroid. If that is hypo (slow) that can cause major depression until you get on synthetic thyroid hormone and take vitamins along with it.

Finally, if you're unhappy with your job, your relationships, or something in your life that is constantly on your mind, then you need to come up with a plan to remove that source of negativity and unhappiness. Sounds easier than it is, but it's possible it could be a cause of your depression too.

Oh, and your antidepressant could have the side effect of depression and anxiety. So, there's a lot of causes for morning depression. It's just a matter of you figuring out which one or more could be contributing to your morning depression.