There is a lot of science behind the growing rates of anxiety and depression in the modern world. Many people are trying their best to avoid medications that may change their behavior. And everyone wants to avoid medications that may lead to addiction.

Millions of people around the world have found the power and efficacy of CBD oils. Now legal in many countries, including the United States, Hemp products are now filling the shelves to help with everything from chronic pain to sleep. One of the leading uses of CBD is to help with emotional and mental wellness and well-being.

Before we go further, if you are suffering from chronic or acute anxiety, depression, or any other mental or emotional health issue, please consult a qualified medical professional. If you’re unsure how to begin, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for free, confidential help, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

We decided to look into the CBD products that many people are looking to for help with their stress. We did a lot of research and found six products with a lot to recommend them. All of them became Best in a given category, so if you’re not sure what sort of CBD product you want, be sure to read the whole article. In the end, we included an FAQ section for any questions you might still have.

While conducting our research, we discovered a lot of what the scientific community has found, and what it hasn’t found, about using CBD products for Anxiety, Depression, and Stress. This is interesting work to look into because, for some people, THC produces a nervous effect. But CBD works in just the opposite manner. We included a section at the end of the reviews that have some of the research we found.

Best CBD Oils For Anxiety, Depression & Stress

#1

Librioil

   Best CBD for anxiety

#2

CBDfx

   Runner-up CBD for anxiety

#3

Spruce CBD

Highest Potency

#4

Royal CBD

 Best-Full Spectrum

#5

CBDPure

Most Natural

#6

Medterra CBD

Good for depression

Librioil: Best CBD for Anxiety

Currently our favourite CBD Oil for anxiety is Librioil. Containing compounds that equate to 1000mg of relaxing and calming mint flavoured CBD oil, Librioil is produced and extracted using hemp and in the USA. Meaning the product is safely made in an FDA registered facility and under stringent guidelines, unlike many options on the market right now.

Librioil falls under the umbrella of products by PFX Labs, who've been in the CBD space for nearly 5 years with plenty of positive reviews online. Currently it's for sale on ShredCBD's website here, but we are told a dedicated Librioil website for the product but also for anxiety, stress and depression related advice is coming soon.

The drawbacks? Its price may put some off, however Librioil is avialable to buy in a multi buy deal that saves you 15% and comes with free USA shipping. You can also only buy it from the manufacturer website here, as its not available on Amazon yet.

Librioil is perfect for those looking for a mint flavoured calming CBD oil, and with the free shipping and saving is actually one of the more affordable 1000mg tinctures available in the USA now. This makes it the safest, best value and one of the most effective options for those looking to use CBD to help manage stress and anxiety without the risk of high levels of THC or supplemnents imported to the US from less desirable areas.

PROS

  • Helps with anxiety and stress
  • Reputable Brand
  • Multi buy deals
  • Modern extraction process
  • Premium formulation and advanced doses

CONS

  • One flavour
  • Only available directly here

CBDfx: Runner-up CBD for Anxiety

We put this review at the top, because let’s face it, if you want to curb your anxiety you probably want to do it fast. And CBDfx has a full range of CBD products to help with just that. Topping the list of their products for anxiety, we found their CBD + CBN Calming Tincture

CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it’s a compound found in all plants in the cannabis family. It has many uses and science is just now beginning to unlock all of its potential. Another compound found in cannabis plants is cannabinol or CBN. CBN has been suggested to have amazing calming effects when it interacts with the receptors in our brains.

By combining extra CBN in their existing CBD formula, CBDfx has created a calming tincture that begins to work fast. The Calming Tincture is also full-spectrum, which means it contains all of the terpenes and flavonoids of the hemp plant. (Yes, this also means it contains traces of THC, but it won’t make you ‘high.’)

CBDfx offers a range of doctor reviews on their products, and their Calming Tincture is no exception. A doctor has used this product, and his review is available through the link above. In the review, he recommends this specific product for anyone having trouble sleeping or who has problems with worry or anxiety. You can’t ask for much more than a doctor's recommendation for a product.

If you’re looking for something with a little more potent, and you are in a position where an amount of THC that could make you feel psychotropic effects is okay, then you can try their Ultimate Chill. Remember, though, that this does contain added THC.

PROS

  • Doctor reviewed
  • Suggested for anxiety and worry
  • It May help you sleep better
  • Company with a wide range of products for stress and anxiety

CONS

  • Products do contain THC
  • Other products are a little pricey

For the quickest and perhaps strongest calming effect, we recommend CBDfx as Best for Anxiety. Their Calming Tincture is available from their website for $69.99 at the lowest potency.

Spruce CBD: Highest Potency

If you are just starting out with CBD products, every manufacturer we researched recommends starting out with low doses and potencies. But if you’re an old hand at CBD products, and you’re looking for something new and something strong to help with your stress and anxiety, look no further than Spruce CBD and their Lab Grade Oil.

This CBD oil packs a whopping 2400 mg of CBD per bottle. That’s an impressive 80 mg per dropper. For comparison, we’ve seen creams with as little as 100 mg per jar. Most gummies we see have 25 mg. That means you’re getting over three times the average gummy per drop.

Spruce CBD is full-spectrum, but they believe their product produces a ‘zero-high’ effect. That means you’ll only be getting the calming, soothing side of CBD, with none of the edginess that comes with some THC products.

Finding a strong product can make some people nervous. After all, stronger isn’t always better, and it can be hard to trust the claims of some companies. For the trust factor, Spruce CBD has had its products third-party tested to ensure the legitimacy of its claims. To address the efficacy of strength, we advise you to check your current dosage of CBD.

The dose and potency of CBD is a highly personal matter. If you’re not used to CBD products, then stronger is most definitely not better. But if you’re reading this review because you are looking for something stronger, then this is the product for you.

PROS

  • Lab-grade strength
  • Third-party tested
  • Family-owned company
  • Full-Spectrum

CONS

  • Potency does not allow for flavoring
  • Not recommended for anyone subject to drug screenings

For the Highest Potency when dealing with stress or anxiety, we recommend Spruce CBD’s Lab-Grad oil, which contains 80 mg per drop, and thirty drops per bottle. One thing to keep in mind, they can’t get this level of CBD in a product for pennies. A bottle of this high potency CBD oil is $269. You can save 15% by signing up for a subscription.

Royal CBD: Best Full-Spectrum

When you attach a name like “Royal” to your brand, you should be ready to back up the perceptions you're inviting. And Royal CBD does just that. Their Full-Spectrum Oil is Best in class for stress and anxiety, and depression.

Royal CBD has a lot to suggest themselves. For starters, they use only the highest quality hemp, and they use a clean extraction method to make sure there are no adulterations to their CBD. And they believe in the benefits of full-spectrum CBD. (Check our research section at the end for support that full-spectrum CBD is best for depression.)

Sometimes someone just calls themselves the best, but they don’t offer any sort of proof or corroboration. But the full-spectrum products at Royal have won a number of awards, including having the best-rated oils for both 2019 and 2020. And sources ranging from the LA Weekly to High Times and even to CNN have included them on their Top 5 or Top 10 lists.

Royal CBD also submits itself to third-party testing, so you know you can trust what they say about their product. And unlike some producers who submit a few samples to third-party testing, Royal CBD sends a portion of every batch they produce to a laboratory for verification. They offer a full line of innovative products, so if you’re not sure about taking an oral tincture, be sure to look into their other items.

Even the reviews at Royal CBD are third-party authenticated, in this case by TrustSpot. And according to those verified reviews, they hold a better than 4.5 out of 5 ratings, according to hundreds of real buyers.

If you’re still not sure, Royal CBD offers a Satisfaction Guarantee. If you’re not happy with your purchase, you can reach out to them and receive personalized advice about dosage and product selection, and even get a coupon to try their recommendation.

And no matter what, they also have a 30-day money-back guarantee, as well. For all that, we’d say Royal CBD has earned its name.

PROS

  • Winner of multiple awards
  • Full-Spectrum CBD
  • Money-Back guarantee
  • Third-party tested
  • Multiple products and potencies

CONS

  • Best prices are only available through subscription or bundling
  • Cannot return the product for money-back if you’ve used it all

There are a number of factors that went into us giving Royal CBD our Best Full-Spectrum recommendation for Anxiety and Depression. It really came down to how many third-party lab tests to submit to, and the fact that their reviews are authenticated by TrustSpot. Their 500 mg oil is available for $63 on their website.

CBDPure: Most Natural

Almost anything grown can claim to be natural. But anyone who’s been to a farmer’s market knows there’s a difference between natural and natural. CBDPure knows the difference, too. And for anxiety-free CBD, we give CBDPure our Most Natural recommendation.

The people behind CBDPure are a family in Vancouver, WA. In the Pacific Northwest, they know a thing or two about organic farming. The folks at CBDPure work directly with the farmers they know in Colorado to bring you the finest hemp product on the market.

It begins on the farm. The hemp they use is grown using organic standards, from seed to harvest. No pesticides, no herbicides. Just the Golden Sun of Colorado that gave its name to so many places there. After the hemp is harvested, they keep on with the highest standards, from extracting the hemp oil in an environmentally conscious way to purifying it naturally so that you get only the highest-grade product.

Because the family that operates CBDPure knows so well what they’re after, they even grow their own hemp. Right on their FAQ page, they boast of growing some of the hemp they use on their own family farms. You can’t ask for much more natural than a family farming the hemp they’ll use to make your CBD oil.

CBDPure wants to make sure their product is as natural as it gets, so when they submit to third-party lab testing, they don’t just look for CBD levels. They test for residual solvents, so you know they aren’t using harsh chemicals to extract the CBD. They test for microorganisms, so you know there aren’t any impurities. And they also test for pesticides, to ensure only the most natural CBD oil you can get.

PROS

  • Full-Spectrum CBD
  • Grown to organic standards
  • Family-owned company
  • Some hemp sourced from family farms
  • Lab-tested for purity

CONS

  • Because they’re the Most Natural, there are no flavor options
  • Dedication to purity means no super-high potency available

Let’s face it, some of us have a little bit of anxiety and stress because of how unsure we are about the world around us. CBDPure takes the guesswork and the worry out of selecting the purest CBD oil on the market. They get our recommendation for the Most Natural product for Anxiety and Depression. Their lowest grade potency is available on their website for $29.

Joy Organics: Best THC-Free 

Most of the products we’ve reviewed have been what’s called ‘full-spectrum.’ This of course means that the products contain at least some trace amounts of THC. But some of us are not in a position where any amount of THC is acceptable. For those of us who need to avoid that at all costs, we recommend Joy Organic for Best THC-Free CBD product for anxiety and depression.

Despite changing times and changing laws, for some of us it’s simply best that we don’t have any THC in our system. For a long time that meant missing out on the full benefits of CBD therapies. After all, if we strip everything out of the hemp, we miss out on the full effect of the different compounds found in hemp.

The people behind Joy Organics have not only found a way to offer broad-spectrum CBD (everything from the hemp except the THC), but they’ve even had their 0.0% THC claims lab-verified. And you can even check the lab-reports yourself.

We need to note here, though, that neither Joy Organics, nor anyone else, can guarantee that a drug screening won’t be triggered by use of this product. The science behind this is pretty straightforward. Many low-grade drug tests aren’t actually screening for THC, but for any cannabis protein marker. That means that while you likely will pass a more rigorous drug test, you may face intermediate consequences.

That being said, Joy Organics has lab-tested their products, and for everything they say is 0.0% THC detected, you can verify it.


PROS

  • Lab-tested 0.0% THC
  • Full-line of products
  • Newly introduced USDA Certified Organic line
  • Multiple flavors and potencies

CONS

  • Cannot guarantee to pass a drug screening
  • Best prices are only available with subscriptions

If you’ve been looking into CBD products to help with your stress, depression, or anxiety, but you know you need to avoid THC, our Best Recommendation is Joy Organics. Their baseline, USDA organic tincture is available on their website for $69.95.

Medterra CBD Oil: Good for Depression

When conducting our product research, we came across an interesting article from a clinical psychologist that states that the best CBD products for depression include some level of THC. While that may not be suitable for everyone, we couldn’t in good conscience ignore the evidence. And the best product that fits that description is Medterra’s True Full Spectrum CBD Oil.

The amount of a given compound matters a lot. After all, if you’re taking ibuprofen you don’t want your pill to only have a fraction of the recommended dose. In Medterra’s True Full Spectrum, there is a full 2 mg of THC per bottle. In addition to that, they lab-test their products to ensure a 5:1 ratio of cannabinoid compounds to any other ingredient in their product.

There is a concept in CBD delivery to the endocannabinoid system called the ‘entourage effect.’ This is similar to how amino acids work in our metabolism. Yes amino acids are important, but it takes different kinds in different combinations to achieve the right result.

So it is with the compounds from the hemp plant. A number of studies have suggested that our brains react the best to CBD when it comes in concert with the other flavonoids and terpenes of the hemp plant, including THC.

By having 2 mg of THC in their product, Medterra makes sure that they’re getting you that ‘entourage effect’ that we researched can have the best results for depression.

PROS

  • Full-Spectrum
  • A recommended blend of THC and CBD for depression
  • Available in a variety of strengths
  • Two flavors

CONS

  • Not recommended for use before driving or operation of machinery
  • Because THC, not suited for anyone taking drug tests

For the fullest and best results when combatting depression, we recommend Medterra’s True Full Spectrum oil. It has a listed amount of THC, so you know exactly what you’re getting, and they lab-test their batches to ensure quality. Their lowest potency True Full Spectrum oil is available on their website for $49.99.

Conclusion

If you’ve decided to look into CBD for your anxiety, stress, or depression, then you have an interesting road ahead. We hope these reviews have made your decision a little easier. We recommend all the products on this list, for a variety of reasons. We don’t think you can go wrong with any of them.

That being said, some of the companies and some of their products might be better suited to you than others. That’s why we went with the Best in different Categories. If you're interested in some of the scientific research behind CBD oils for anxiety or depression, read on below. And be sure to check the FAQs at the end.

What CBD Can Do for Stress and Anxiety

There is a lot of complicated science behind how CBD and other cannabis products work. We’ll try to explain some of it and provide links to the actual research being done to support the claims of so many people that CBD helps with their stress and anxiety.

A lot of what we learned came from an article published all the way back in 2015, in the Journal Neurotherapeutics, and available from the National Institutes of Health, here.

This study found that there really are receptors in the human brain, called the endocannabinoid system, onto which compounds from the cannabis plant attach. When these compounds attach to our brain, certain stress, fear, and anxiety reactions are dulled, slowed, or even obviated altogether.

That means that with controlled, measured CBD usage, stress and anxiety really can be reduced.

Some of the confusion around this comes from the sister plant of hemp, marajuana. The active ingredient in marijuana is the psychoactive compound THC. THC attaches to the same endocannabinoid receptors in the brain, but in that case, anxiety and fear can actually increase.

While there is a trace amount of THC in full-spectrum CBD products, the THC really only acts as a helper, or carrier, of the CBD. That means you’ll only get the anxiety and fear-dampening effects of the CBD.

These findings have so far penetrated the medical community that even a company like GoodRx has supported them on their website.

What CBD Can Do for Depression

The research into how CBD affects depression seems to go back even further than the research into anxiety. In fact, we found a meta-analysis (a study of a whole lot of other studies) that dates back to 2014, and is also available from the NIH, here.

The Abstract of the study (or summary, for the layperson) supports the claims that CBD is effective in treating not only anxiety but depression, as well. We also found an article from clinical psychologist Emily Guarnotta (PsyD) for GoodRx that supports these findings.

Best for all  people looking at full-spectrum CBD products, the article from Dr. Guarnotta states that the most effective CBD treatments for depression, do contain a small amount of THC.

Frequent Asked Questions

Does CBD Really Work for Anxiety/Stress? 

 It does. Not only do we have the testimony of thousands of people, but we were also even able to find some studies to support the science behind it. If you’re suffering from chronic or acute anxiety, the best place to start is with a qualified medical professional.

 Does CBD Really Work for Depression?

 Again, yes. We found even more studies to support the use of CBD for depression. We did, however, find that it may be better to combine CBD with THC for treating depression. If you’re suffering from acute or chronic depression, please call 1-800-662-HELP.

 Are CBD Products Safe?

Generally speaking, yes. Some people do have allergies and sensitivities to CBD, though. For first-time users, use caution and have a safety plan.

 Is CBD Legal?

In every state, hemp and CBD use is legal, provided the person using the product is of age and there is less than 0.3% THC by weight.

 Is CBD Addictive? 

More research needs to be conducted to say definitively whether CBD is addictive. Preliminary observations suggest it is a safe product.

To see our terms and conditions please read this compliance notice.

About the Author

Steven has been into health, nutrition, and fitness for over 10 years, and has a degree in Physical Education and Coaching. He is an expert in supplements and is devoted to helping his clients achieve their fitness goals and live their best lives.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
>