Low cortisol often gets misunderstood. People assume it means their adrenals are shot. But that’s rarely the case. In most situations, low cortisol isn’t a failure—it’s your body asking for a break. It’s the system hitting pause after too much time in overdrive. This isn’t Addison’s or a true hormone deficiency. If your ACTH is normal (not high), and your salivary cortisol is low all day, your body isn’t broken—it’s protecting itself. That kind of pattern usually means the stress response has be