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Essential oils to help alleviate anxiety and improve sleep

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essential oils and anxiety

There are a number of essential oils that are currently in use as aromatherapy agents to relieve anxiety, stress, and depression, and often improve sleep too. Here is some feedback from individuals who use essential oils and share some of their favorites and some ways that they use them.

Tana really likes myrtle and a combination product called Peace and Calming:

My favorite for anxiety is Young Living Myrtle. I originally bought it to use for thyroid support and found it really helped when I felt anxious. Now I wouldn’t be without it. Another favorite of mine is Peace and Calming [which contains tangerine, orange, ylang ylang, patchouli, vetiver, bergamot and some others]

Drew likes to use a blend of oils:

I diffuse a blend of oils including lavender around bed time in my LUMIE Bodyclock Iris 500 which helps create a wonderful calming sleep haven. Low level warm lighting switched on too.

Joy uses her essential oils in candles, incense, or in a homemade spray and shares that she:

loves lavender oil and sandalwood oil for relieving anxiety. I either have them in candles, incense, or in a homemade spray.

Laura has great way of using her essential oils when she is out and about. She shares:

I love lavender, frankincense and geranium (rose geranium when I can find it). I use them in our home and I like to put a couple drops on cotton balls to carry in a sandwich bag. There are times when I like to take them with me.

Evan’s son uses essential oils for anxiety and insomnia:

My son uses Peace & calming with lavender in the diffuser and/or Valor (sometimes vetiver) on his wrists for anxiety and sleepless nights.

There is, of course, research supporting how many of these essential oils help to reduce anxiety. This paper looks at myrtle and the GABA connection: Anxiolytic-like effects and mechanism of (-)-myrtenol and states that:

results suggest that MYR [myrtle] presents anxiolytic-like activity and that effect can be mediated by GABAergic transmission

Here are a few of the many papers supporting aromatherapy for anxiety and stress:

Here is systematic review published October 2015: A Systematic Review of the Anxiolytic-Like Effects of Essential Oils in Animal Models

The essential oil with the best profile is Lavendula angustifolia, which has already been tested in controlled clinical trials with positive results. Citrus aurantium using different routes of administration also showed significant effects in several animal models, and was corroborated by different research groups. Other promising essential oils are Citrus sinensis and bergamot oil, which showed certain clinical anxiolytic actions; along with Achillea wilhemsii, Alpinia zerumbet, Citrus aurantium, and Spiranthera odoratissima, which, like Lavendula angustifolia, appear to exert anxiolytic-like effects without GABA/benzodiazepine activity, thus differing in their mechanisms of action from the benzodiazepines.

Have you used any essential oils for anxiety? I’d love to hear which are your favorites and how you’ve used them? Do you/did you use only essential oils or other approaches to help your anxiety too? Do you continue to use them? Do you recommend them to clients or patients?

I love lavender (it’s in my facewash) and neroli (I use this as a spray instead of using perfume). I also travel with lavender essential oil in case sleep is an issue in noisy hotels.

Using Essential Oils to Survive and Thrive with Anxiety and Depression

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lavender

Essential oils can be a powerful addition to help relieve your anxiety, stress, depression and other mood disorders.  There is much research supporting the use of aromatherapy as we can see from this summary in a 2013 paper:  

“Molecular medical research on aromatherapy has been steadily increasing for use as an adjuvant therapy in managing psychiatric disorders and to examine its therapeutic mechanisms. Most studies, as well as clinically applied experience, have indicated that various essential oils, such as lavender, lemon and bergamot can help to relieve stress, anxiety, depression and other mood disorders. Most notably, inhalation of essential oils can communicate signals to the olfactory system and stimulate the brain to exert neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin and dopamine) thereby further regulating mood.”

Today, I’m sharing a guest post on how to use essential oils, written by AnnaLaura Brown:

As anyone who suffers from anxiety and depression knows, it’s really hard on your life and can make it difficult to live a normal life. The drugs that are often prescribed can help but in many cases they don’t completely fix the problem and the side effects can make your health and the rest of your life even worse. So what can you do? While there are a variety of available options, essential oils have been proven to be a great natural solution. Essential oils are extracted from plants and because they are not a synthetic drug they have virtually no side effects. That said as with all products that are a form of medicine if you are currently taking drugs, then you want to talk with your doctor before you begin using essential oils.

Here are some tips to help you survive and thrive with anxiety and depression while using essential oils.

  1. If you are not on drugs now, don’t start using them and begin using essential oils instead.
  2. If you are on drugs now, talk with your doctor about your desire to gradually stop using them and work out a program to get off them over time and to begin using essential oils.
  3. Start slowly by trying one essential oil at a time. Identify your biggest health problem that you suffer with as a result of your anxiety and depression. For example, if you have problems sleeping, then you should start by using an oil that will help you sleep better. The best oil for this is lavender.
  4. Keep using that same oil for at least 2 weeks before you try another one.
  5. Take the time to do some research and to learn about different essential oils and how they are used for anxiety, depression and to help with moods. For example, citrus oils such as lemon, and orange can help uplift the moods of a lot of people. There are several books written on using oils for moods so you can probably find one with a lot of details at your local library or bookstore.
  6. Experiment with different ways of using oils. The most common ways that people use them are by either rubbing a few drops on the bottoms of your feet or your wrists, or by putting a few drops with some water into a diffuser or humidifier. You will want to try both ways and see which way works the best for you.
  7. Work on improving other aspects of your life so that you can live a more balanced life overall.
  8. Keep small amounts of the oils with you at all times so that if you start to feel depressed or anxious you can rub a little bit or smell the bottle to get some relief.

AnnaLaura Brown is passionate about helping others discover the power of essential oils for health and wellness. She personally discovered the oils while suffering from asthma and was able to get rid of her inhalers and use essential oils instead. In the past 2 years she has helped lots of people discover the power of essential oils for a variety of health and wellness uses. Grab your free copy of her report 50 ways to use essential oils at Health and Wealth with Oils.