The Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy

As you work on rebuilding your physical, mental and spiritual health through your recovery journey, there are many alternative therapies you can try, including aromatherapy, which relies upon the therapeutic use of essential oils from plant extracts. You can use aromatherapy on its own, or in conjunction with other holistic treatments like yoga and massage, as part of your well-rounded self-care routine. Here’s everything you need to know to get started with your practice.

How Does Aromatherapy Work?

The use of aromatherapy dates back centuries, and today, aromatherapy is one of the fastest-growing areas of complementary medicine in the United States.

Practitioners of natural medicines believe aromatherapy works by stimulating the smell receptors in your nose, which then send messages into the limbic system — the part of your brain that regulates emotions.

You can inhale the highly concentrated oils directly or indirectly through an essential oil diffuser, or apply them to your skin through massage, lotions or bath gel. A word to the wise, however: You can’t use all essential oils topically in their undiluted form. Most need to be added to carrier oils such as olive, grapeseed or sweet almond. If you aren’t sure how to mix your own essential oils, many companies offer essential oils that are pre-blended with a carrier.

How to Choose and Use Essential Oils for Better Well-Being

Unsurprisingly, essential oils derived from different plants have a wide range of benefits. Some, like peppermint, help create a more alert, uplifted mood, while others, like lavender, are deeply soothing and can relieve anxiety and insomnia. Try different oils on different days to see what works best for you.

• Bergamot: Bergamot can be a way to treat stress, depression, anxiety and skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema. It can help stimulate your internal organs and provide an overall mood boost on days when you’re feeling low.
• Cedarwood: Cedarwood oil has calming properties that many users say help alleviate stress and anxiety. It’s an excellent way to improve mood, and plays a role in aiding respiratory problems, skin problems and urinary tract infections.
• Chamomile: Chamomile is a potent calming agent, as well as an antibiotic, antiseptic, antidepressant and all-around mood improver. It has analgesic properties and can also help fight inflammation.
• Lavender: In addition to providing some users with rapid relief from anxiety and stress, lavender users say it serves as an antiseptic, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, decongestant, deodorant, diuretic and sedative.
• Peppermint: Peppermint oil has a wide range of therapeutic properties in alternative medicine. It is a cooling agent that may enhances mood, sharpens focus, combats irritation and redness, alleviates symptoms of congestion and aids in digestion.
• Tea tree: Proponents of this versatile essential oil say it has abundant healing properties. Not only is it a natural immune booster, but it may also help the body fight off infection. It works to heal skin conditions, burns and cuts and is an insecticide. In addition, it can help soothe and treat cold sores, respiratory conditions, muscle aches, the flu and dandruff.

Holistic Addiction Treatment on a Continuum of Care

At Complete Harmony, we take a whole-person approach to healing the disease of addiction. When you need California drug and alcohol recovery for yourself or a loved one, explore our innovative, non-12-step treatment options, then contact our rehab team.

Why Substance Abuse and Intimacy Issues Go Hand in Hand

Addiction is, at its heart, a disease of isolation and secrecy. People who consistently misuse drugs and alcohol do so as an unhealthy coping mechanism that helps them mask unpleasant thoughts and feelings and makes uncomfortable personal interactions go more smoothly.

For example, perhaps you have unresolved issues with trauma, and drugs or alcohol have become a way for you to avoid thinking about the past. Or, maybe most social interactions make you feel anxious, so when you go to parties, you drink to the point where you feel more confident in socializing with others.

Reasons Substance Abusers Struggle With Intimacy

Many people with substance misuse disorders struggle to relate to other people and form close personal bonds. For obvious reasons, problems like childhood sexual abuse, anxiety and depression give rise to strong feelings of shame and guilt that tend to make people withdraw from society. The connection also leads to the urge to self-medicate and sweep those problems under the rug.

To make matters worse, many people who have underlying intimacy issues begin relying on drugs and alcohol to self-medicate relatively early in their lives, often in their teens or early 20s. As soon as they begin to form their addictive behavior, it stunts the process of emotional growth that forms the foundation of healthy adult relationships.

Often, those who enter recovery report feeling stuck at the emotional level of however old they were when they first began abusing substances. In other words, someone who began drinking or using drugs in high school will probably have the same emotional maturity as a 16- or 17-year-old until they eventually start their recovery journey and resume the process of growing up.

Others start off with deep-seated intimacy disorders that fuel their substance abuse, which in turn exacerbates their intimacy issues. Either way, for many people, substance abuse and intimacy issues become equal halves of a vicious and destructive cycle.

The Costs of Substance Abuse on Relationships

While addiction takes its toll on every relationship in someone’s life, the hardest-hit relationship is often the one between the drug or alcohol abuser and their spouse or partner. As the addiction escalates, it starts to create an emotional divide between the partners that is challenging to overcome. Worsening alcohol and drug use also leads to more arguments, which can sometimes become violent. In some cases, this tension can create an environment in which the partner with the addiction begins to rely on their substance of choice more and more to reduce stress and avoid having to think about the extent of the problems.

There are several telltale signs that drinking, drug use and self-destructive habits by an intimate partner are causing tension within the relationship to the point that drug rehab may be necessary to stop the cycle.

• Drinking or drug use is one of the only activities the partners like to do together.
• Domestic violence sometimes becomes an issue when a partner has been drinking or using drugs.
• One or both partners need to be drunk or high to become sexually intimate or to discuss the problems in their relationship.
• The substance abuser’s drinking or drug use has become the source of many arguments about failure to take care of household responsibilities, lying about where they are going or what they are doing, staying out too late, etc.
• The non-addicted partner has had to make excuses for the drug or alcohol abuser by apologizing to others for their behavior or calling in sick when they are too high or hung over to report to work.
• The partner with the substance misuse disorder drinks or uses drugs to alleviate tension or stress related to household conflict over their substance abuse problems.

Is Addiction Harming Your Relationship?

Don’t let drugs and alcohol destroy your life. Regain control with Complete Harmony’s cutting-edge holistic rehab program. Our professional California rehab team takes an individualized approach to healing every facet of the body, mind and spirit. Speak to one of our recovery advisors today to make a fresh start.