Can Mold Exposure Cause Anxiety? How I Healed My Nervous System After Mold Toxicity
At 30 years old, I woke up one day feeling like I was 80. My joints ached, my ankles hurt, everything hurt—and I had no idea why!
That's when we discovered the mold in our basement. The place where I'd been working for months, breathing in toxins without even knowing it.
But here's the thing about mold exposure that no one really talks about: it doesn't just mess with your physical health. It can completely hijack your nervous system and send your anxiety through the roof.
Within just a few months of that exposure, my labs came back looking terrible. My thyroid was off, my adrenals needed help, my fasting insulin was elevated. Even though I'm a practitioner who helps women heal their hormones every single day, I found myself in a mental spiral. I couldn't stop thinking to myself, "You suck. You don't know what you're doing. You're a failure."
Sound familiar?
If you've been exposed to mold and suddenly find yourself dealing with anxiety, panic attacks, or that constant feeling of dread, you're not losing your mind. Your nervous system is literally under attack, and there's a very real connection between mold toxicity and anxiety that most doctors completely miss.
How Mold Exposure Causes Anxiety
Before I get into how I actually healed from mold toxicity, you need to understand what mold exposure does to your body. Because it's not just one thing; it causes a domino effect that hits everything.
When you're exposed to mold, it releases mycotoxins. And these little toxins can actually cross into your brain and mess with your nervous system. That's why so often you’re not just dealing with physical symptoms, you suddenly start feeling anxious all the time, brain foggy, and like you're constantly on edge.
And in my case, I also have the MTHFR gene mutation, which means my liver detoxes around 10 times slower than normal. So while my body was trying to deal with these toxins, it was basically overwhelmed and struggling to keep up.
Your nervous system controls literally everything—your stress response, your hormones, your digestion, your sleep.
So when mold comes in and starts messing with that system, everything else goes haywire too. That's why my thyroid went funky, my adrenals crashed, and my blood sugar was all over the place.
What really got me was that even after we got rid of the mold and I started doing all the detox stuff, my anxiety didn't just disappear. Because mold doesn't just poison your body—it basically rewires your brain to stay stuck in that fight-or-flight mode.
This is why you might still be dealing with anxiety and panic attacks even after you’ve removed the mold. You can take all the binders and liver support you want, but if you don't fix what happened to your nervous system, you're going to stay stuck in that anxious spiral.
4 Steps to Heal Your Nervous System After Mold Exposure
Getting rid of that stress and anxiety after mold exposure takes more than supplements. You need to literally rewire your brain and give your body the space it needs to get out of that constant fight-or-flight mode.
Here's exactly what I did:
1. Simplify Everything
When you're dealing with mold toxicity, your nervous system is already overwhelmed. The last thing it needs is a complicated protocol with a million supplements.
Cut down to just the essential supplements that were making a difference
Stop trying to do everything at once and focus on one or two things at a time
Let go of the idea that more protocols equals faster healing
2. Embrace the Mindset that "Nothing is an Emergency"
This was huge for me. When your nervous system is already fried, everything feels urgent and overwhelming.
Remind yourself throughout the day when stress pops up: "This is not an emergency"
When feeling overstimulated, put down whatever you’re working on and go outside
Give yourself permission to move things to later if you’re feeling overwhelmed
Practice pausing before reacting to anything that feels "urgent"
3. Focus on the Good Instead of Spiraling
Remember those thoughts I mentioned—"You suck, you don't know what you're doing"? I had to actively work against those.
Start noticing small wins throughout the day, like "My digestion felt great after that meal!"
When you have a bad day, practice seeing it as just feedback, not proof that you’re failing
Stop letting one off day mean everything is falling apart
Celebrate tiny improvements instead of waiting for big changes
4. Get Help and Stop Trying to Figure Everything Out Alone
This was probably the most important step. I sent my labs to another practitioner because I couldn't be objective about my own health.
Outsource the "bird's eye view" of your health to a trusted professional
Stop trying to know everything and just focus on taking the next best step
Ask for help when you feel like spiraling instead of trying to tough it out
I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you. Healing your nervous system after mold exposure takes time, and it's not always a straight line. There were days when I felt like I was back at square one, and days when I questioned everything I thought I knew about health.
But here's what I want you to remember:
Your body has an incredible ability to heal itself when you give it what it needs.
The anxiety, the brain fog, that constant feeling like you're on edge—none of that has to be your new normal.
The biggest shift for me came when I stopped trying to be the “perfect patient" and started being compassionate with myself. When I stopped thinking every bad day meant I was failing and started seeing it as just feedback. When I remembered that healing doesn't happen on my timeline, it happens on my body's timeline.
If you're dealing with stress and anxiety from mold exposure right now, please know that you're not broken. Your nervous system is just trying to protect you like it's designed to do. But with the right support and approach, you can absolutely retrain it to feel safe again!
And if you're feeling overwhelmed by where to even start with all of this, you don't have to figure it out alone. That's exactly why I created the Hormone Reset Program® because I know how isolating it can feel when your body feels like it's working against you, and how much faster you heal when you have someone who's been there walking alongside you.
If you're ready to get the personalized support you need to heal your hormones and nervous system naturally, book a free call with one of my past clients. Share your story with us and let's see if we can help you get your life back!