High Cortisol AM Blood Test

What's up guys, I have really been having a time. Going through Divorce, moving across country, starting new job. Anyway I have been on antidepressants for the past 8 yrs. when my marriage hit the rocks i choose to get off them cause they were a reason for my wife leaving me and try to handle my anxiety depression naturally with exercise, working out and supplements. Well needless to say with everything going on in my life it wasn't long before i had to get back on anti depressants. It has been tough trying to get back on and i have been experiencing a lot of intense anxiety. I did some research and found that all the stress and anxiety elevates your cortisol and that causes a lot of problems. I had a morning cortisol AM blood test and it came back high 34.5 out of a range of 6.2 - 19.4 I haven't slept well in weeks and the night before the test might have gotten 2 or 3 hrs sleep.
so my question is how serious is this? And what can i do to bring the reading down? Any info or advise would be much appreciated. also is it true that u should take care of a cortisol problem before you start working on other hormonal problems like low Test?

Thanks again guys!

Bump for Marcus300...

Welcome

and perfect....since my 300th post! how uncanny

Well I'm no expert on Cortisol however, I too had been dealing with significant stress for quite some time and suspected it may be related to my condition; so I did some minor research at one point. It turns out excessive cortisol and adrenal fatigue are closely related. I did a quick Google just now and came up with the following site which may help give you a little more insight on your condition and what can be done.

Hypoadrenia and Cortisol

What many people are not aware of is that Low T, and other hormone deficiencies are often related to or even the cause of many mental conditions such as depression, anxiety, insomnia etc. Just as a side note re: insomnia, are you familiar at all with "sleep apnea"? It to can often be related and even the cause of many conditions.

I'm not saying that it's for everyone however, often many anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications only mask the problems providing a "band-aid" effect. The strength of hormone replacement therapy is that it often addresses the root cause. Do some more digging around. Make Google your friend and keep asking questions. You're on the right track.

Best of luck!

F/T