In the process of underground excavation, the surrounding rock is in a very complex stress environment, especially under the influence of its anisotropy, the occurrence of dynamic disaster is hidden. In this paper, the loading and unloading tests of sandstone in different principal stress directions were carried out by using the true triaxial unloading disturbed rock test system. The mechanical properties and failure characteristics of true triaxial under different principal stresses were studied, the energy evolution mechanism in other directions induced by loading and unloading of different principal stresses was analyzed. Results showed that under the influence of rock mass secondary stress anisotropy, during the cyclic loading and unloading process of the first principal stress, the strain in other directions shows opposite deformation. The volumetric strain compresses first and then expands, and the final volumetric strain shows a macroscopic phenomenon of expansion. When the third principal stress of hi