High Cortisol and Anxiety: When the Stress Response Stays Activated

Cortisol is meant to rise in response to a challenge and then settle back down. But sometimes the stress response gets stuck in the on-position. 

Repeated exposure to stress, prolonged pressure, ongoing worry, dwelling on problems, or even anticipating stress can keep cortisol levels elevated for long periods of time. 

Acute Stress vs Chronic Stress

Cortisol sets your body up to respond to acute (right now) danger. It mobilizes energy so you can fight or flee the threat, and suppresses body systems that aren't needed in an emergency.

When stress is chronic or anxiety, worry, or nervousness are frequently activated, cortisol can remain elevated. The body stays in a state of readiness that has negative repercussions for health and well-being. 

What Chronically High Cortisol Does to Your Body

Long-term elevated cortisol levels can have wide-ranging effects. Over time, they can:

• Negatively impact working memory

• Increase blood pressure

• Decrease immune function

• Interfere with reproduction and libido

• Create insulin resistance

• Contribute to weight gain, especially around the middle

Many people feel these symptoms daily without realizing cortisol may be involved.

How High Cortisol Can Increase Anxiety

People who deal with a lot of anxiety get anxious about being anxious. 

Cortisol that stays high for too long contributes to a jittery, wired, anxious feeling, creating a self-reinforcing cycle:

anxiety → increased cortisol → heightened anxiety → persistently elevated cortisol →

Support for Breaking the Cortisol–Anxiety Cycle

When anxiety repeatedly activates the stress response, the goal isn’t to eliminate cortisol — it’s to help your body return to baseline more easily and reduce how often the system gets triggered in the first place.

There are two ways to do that: physically and mentally. 

I’ve created resources that address both these sides of anxiety:

Feed Your Calm: Anti-Anxiety, Anti-Stress Diet and Supplement Tips for Stress Resilience focuses on what’s happening in your body when stress and anxiety are frequent. It looks at how cortisol interacts with nerves, neurotransmitters, blood sugar, inflammation, and the gut — and how food and supplements can support a calmer, more resilient stress response.

Becoming Calm: Silver Lining Anxiety and Stress Resilience Workbook & Journal helps you work with the mental and emotional loops that keep anxiety activated. It offers structured journaling, reflection, and practical techniques to reduce reactivity, interrupt worry cycles, and build stress resilience.

Both books are designed to support the kind of chronic stress patterns described here — not by fighting your stress response, but by helping it do what it was meant to do: activate when needed and then settle.

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