Military downer? (14 letters)

Answer: GENERALMALAISE

I've been in this funk since before Florida...but it definitely bottomed out in FL. It's this overall feeling of blah--not wanting to do anything, not finding anything that interests me. I've pretty much been the embodiment of ennui for 3 months. It makes me a real peach to be around, i imagine. I have a feeling I know what is happening, but I don't really feel like dealing with it. The cycle continues....

As many know, I'm kinda addicted to crossword (xwd) puzzles. It all started when i had to "read" the New York Times for my International Relations course freshman year at RPI. (It was one of maybe 10 humanities courses without "science" explicitly in the title.) Rather than read the international news in Section A every day, I did the xwd and saved the A section...til reading days, when I read 3 months of news in 2-3 days....which sucked. Silver lining: I got decent at xwds.

My addiction hit a lull once my NYT subscription ended, but ramped back up again when I would get the Sunday NYT puzzles from my ex's family and even moreso during my Starbucks tenure, when people would leave the NYT (w/ xwd) strewn about. Now, it's at a full-blown, intervention-worthy level. I read ~3 crossword blogs every day, subscribe to a daily pay xwd service, enter a weekly xwd contest, and do numerous free xwds from a xwd forum. Feelings of OCD persist if I don't do all of the puzzles in a given day. I guess there are worse things to be addicted to (crack comes to mind), but it's turning into something i hafta do, rather than choose to do. Same thing happened with Overheard in New York...