Essential Oils -- They are Something, but Not Everything

NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
But, I will never link you to anything I don't trust or use myself!

One of my great experiments when I went off my meds was to see if I could control my anxiety symptoms using essential oils.

If you are wondering about the essential oil world, my one piece of advice is to DO YOUR RESEARCH. Please, please, PLEASE don't take the advice of one site or blog... or even fifty for that matter. It's an over saturated market right now, and it is difficult to find factual information!

*And remember, I am not a medical professional, I am a regular person.*

I first heard of essential oils from a friend on Facebook. Then, I started reading some blogs and articles about them. Everything I was reading was very convincing.

But, I don't really do anything without researching 10X more than the average person.

Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals is 650 pages of information! You definitely don't get this information from Pinterest. Like Technically, each individual oil has it's own safe dilution percentage. Some are more than others. So, we are given a blanket percentage on most informative sites. There are many cases of essential oils that are just counter productive together. There are some that actually interact with pharmaceutical medicines. This book also explains the science of absorption and chemical reactions that happen in body which is really impressive and cool.

Essential have become a major trend. I'm not saying that's bad, but with trends there is a tendency for things to get overlooked in order to spread the word about such a good thing quickly.

Essential oils are powerful. They have scientific research to back their medicinal qualities. They shouldn't be used casually, without careful thought. In my opinion, the trending use of essential oils is careless and wasteful.

Everywhere, you can find recipes for any ailment. You can find advice from people who use essential oils straight out of the bottle. I saw a video of a essential oil seller who's daughter was sprinkling her essential oils onto her wrists before school. I know that not all essential oil sellers promote this, but I have found many that do.

Using MORE essential oils does not make them stronger! Using them straight up is just plain wasteful (so, frankly, a way to get you to use more and get more sales). Check out this page. It is extremely informative about diluting essential oils.

Basically, safe dilution of a 15 ml essential oil is 2% which would fill up a wine bottle! That would last for a VERY LONG TIME. There is no reason anyone should be going through bottles of essential oils per month.

Some oils that have sensitization properties, which means that even if you've used them before without reaction, it could develop at any time.

There are a list of oils that are just NOT safe to use around children... common ones like Peppermint and Eucalyptus, unless at a extremely low dilution? I have to admit, I made this mistake. I didn't do all my research before actually using my oils. I know better now.

Many (and please note I am saying many not all) people endorse dropping essential oils in their water or a capsule to ingest them. This is what originally made me very skeptical of essential oils. If they are that powerful ON your body, why would we need them IN our body? Again, do your research and come to your own decide on your own conclusions.
Mine is that I will NEVER ingest them.

Here are a few sites that I found that give the REAL scoop on essential oils
(these are not affiliate links):

Learning About EOs

The Barefoot Dragonfly

The Tisserand Institute

Intoxicated on Life did a really great series called the Skeptics Guide to Essential Oils.

This post  by Kayla Fioravanti is a great condensed list of cautions to use.

So, after extensive research, I decided to try Eden's Garden essential oils. This company consistently gets great reviews by users, and they are very affordable.

I used specifically for my anxiety:
Frankincense
Align Synergy Blend
&
Relaxation Synergy Blend

As I mentioned in my previous post, when I get into a bad anxious state, I pretty much ignore self care. I wasn't totally consistent in applying the oils in the worst times so, maybe that was my problem.

The essential oils did not have significant effect on my severity of anxiety.

HOWEVER, that is not to say they didn't help at all.

First, I mixed Align and Frankincense, because I CAN'T STAND the smell of Align. Frankincense makes it bearable. And remember, of course, all of these oils are diluted to 2% in a carrier oil (I use coconut or jojoba oil).

I noticed that on days that I used Frankincense, my nervous ticks (yes... I never told you about those) were more under control. When I had the flu really bad, I noticed that I stayed calmer when I used the Relaxation synergy blend. Still today, when I rub Frankincense on my feet at night, I notice my sleep is deeper.

When I rid myself of hype that essential oils should totally replace my pharmaceuticals, I started to really love them. I'm excited to share with you in future posts some of the things I do use essential oils for.

Because, essential oils are something, but they are not everything.
(thanks Laura Miller - Wink).