Low Cortisol and Your Mental Health

https://infocusfirst.com/low-cortisol-mental-health/Can anxiety cause low cortisol? Can low cortisol cause depression or anxiety? Research increasingly shows the relationship runs both ways. Chronic anxiety can exhaust the HPA axis over time, driving cortisol down rather than up. Low cortisol can disrupt the neurochemical balance that mood stability depends on. So if you have been feeling unusually fatigued or emotionally flat, cortisol may be part of the answer.Modern research links HPA axis dysregulation (the system that controls cortisol production) to clinically significant symptoms of depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment, independent of a formal Addison’s disease diagnosis. (Lei et al. 2025)While we often hear about the negative effects of high cortisol and stress, having low cortisol levels can also significantly impact your mental health and daily life. Often, the most disabling effects of low cortisol present as depression, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, cognitive fog, or impaired stress tolerance.