And when we’re evaluating for PTSD, low cortisol levels are a strong indicator. While it may seem counterintuitive that low cortisol levels would occur with PTSD, this is an adaptive response to chronic stress, including intergenerational trauma. It happens because prolonged exposure to stress can lead to dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which regulates the body’s response to stress. This blunts the cortisol response and lowers the body’s baseline amount of cortisol over time. This is to say that the trauma that lives in our bodies is not just about our own lived
...more
