Aromatherapy for treating Generalized Anxiety Disorder

My topic is on the use of aromatherapy oils on Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and on anxiety in general. Worry and anxiety seems to be a large part of today’s modern lifestyle as we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed in our career ambitions and goals which often come hand in hand with stress and anxiety as we try to fit these around our personal lives and commitments. Often people do not focus on trying to undertake stress relieving exercises or health treatments and ignore these emotions choosing to solider on and as they continue to do this it can become detrimental to their mental and physical health. 

Generalized anxiety disorder is a mental condition that causes a person to feel chronic feelings of excessive worry, anxiety and severe dread without any real cause. People with this condition feel on edge, tense and jittery throughout the day and depending on the severity of the condition their anxiety levels can rise to unbearable peaks and fall in a wave like fashion throughout their day which is extremely emotionally draining and exhausting for the individual. A person with this disorder may worry about minor things, daily events or the future. This condition is often linked to depression as an individual suffering from this condition may be inhibited from living their life the way they wish to, this can lead to poor quality of life and in some cases can even lead to suicide. Some physical traits attributed by this condition are elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, muscle tension, sweating and shaking, insomnia, nausea and stomach problems.

Some good natural treatments for anxiety are a good healthy diet, exercise, meditation, regular sleep patterns and herbal treatments such as st johns wort. Other treatments often prescribed by doctors are therapy and medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) and benzodiazepine (sedatives). SSRI’s work to inhibit the uptake of serotonin in the brain eventually causing the emotions felt by the patient to be of a more normal, less distressing range. SSRI’s often come with unwanted side effects such as blurred vision, feelings of agitation, loss of appetite, loss of sex drive and sexual dysfunction and sedatives have side effects such as drowsiness, fatigue, confusion and disorientation and often have highly addictive qualities that can lead to drug abuse. Thus the need for alternatives such as aromatherapy which can be a non-invasive, natural treatment option without any unwanted side effects. It is so non-invasive that it can often be used alongside SSRI’s and other prescribed medications and not affect their actions.

The ‘grandmother oil’ Lavandula Angustifolia is one of the most appropriate oils to use to treat anxiety. It is well known to have sedative and antidepressant effects. The chemical composition of Lavender allows it have anxiolytic effects with the main active constituents being linalool and linalyl acetate which are esters. Esters work to be calming and balancing on the body’s central nervous system and is good for terrain support. Appleton (2012), states that in clinical studies linalool has been shown to inhibit acetylcholine release (which is an excitatory neurotransmitter of the autonomic nervous system) and influence ionic conductance of neurons in the brain and linalyl acetate is described to exert a relaxing effect. Lavender has also been shown to reduce dose dependently spontaneous motility and caffeine induced hyperactivity in mice.

Also a study undertaken on the levels of anxiety on patients which chronic hemodialysis showed on the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety (HAMA) that the aroma of Lavender decreased the mean scores of HAMA suggesting it to be an effective, non-invasive means for treating anxiety in patients. Now discussing the effects of Lavandula Angustifolia compared to other treatments such as SSRI’s and sedatives. Schafke & Woelka (2009) wrote an article discussing the effects of silexan, a new oral lavender oil capsule in comparison to Lorazapam (a common sedative prescribed to people with this condition) the efficacy of a 6-week-intake of silexan compared to lorazepam was investigated in adults with GAD.  They also used the Hamilton anxiety scale to measure the results; which found that the lavender capsules effectively decreased generalized anxiety at a highly comparable level to Lorazepam with the HAMA total score decreased clearly and to similar extents in both groups. The overall conclusion is that the lavender capsules work as effectively as lorazepam and is a preferable choice for treatment for GAD as it does not have side effects or highly addictive qualities that lorazepam possesses.

Lavandula angustifolia is not the only oil you can use to effectively treat anxiety there are many others to choose from such as Basil, bergamot, Roman chamomile, Virginia cedarwood, cypress, frankincense, geranium, jasmine, marjoram, neroli, palmarosa, patchouli, rose, rosewood, vetiver and ylang ylang.

I believe one of the most effective ways to treat anxiety with aromatherapy is through Swedish massage as it combines the therapeutic benefits of the essential oils with the sedative effects of massage. A study was undertaken by Edge (2003) on the effect of aromatherapy massage on mood, relaxation and anxiety in mental health. The study was conducted on eight subjects who were assigned an aromatherapy massage weekly for 6 weeks and were measured on the hospital anxiety and depression scale after their initial and final massages. Results of improvement where shown in 6 of the 8 subjects showing aromatherapy to be highly successful and a powerful treatment option in improvement of  anxiety and mood levels of those in mental health care.

To conclude my presentation aromatherapy is found to be a highly effective, natural and non-invasive treatment that can work just as well as certain prescription medicines prescribed by doctors for sufferers of general anxiety disorder. Lavender especially with its active chemical constituents being esters has a profound effect on the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system at decreasing sympathetic nervous system dominance and exertion and it has been found in combination with Swedish massage to positively treat those in mental health care.

References

Appleton., J. (2012). Lavender oil for anxiety and depression. Natural Medicine Journal. 5 (12). Retrieved from http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?article=289.

Edge., J. (2003). A pilot study addressing the effect of aromatherapy massage on mood, aniety and relaxation in adult metal health. Complementary therapies in nursing and midwifery. 9 (2). Retrieved from http://ezproxy-mc.mywisenet.com.au:2051/science/article/pii/S135361170200104X

H, Woelka., S, Schlafke. (2010). A multi-center, double-blind, randomised study of the Lavender oil preparation Silexan in comparison to Lorazepam for generalized anxiety disorder. Phytomedicine. 17 (94). Retrieved from  http://wellpark.moodle.co.nz/mod/resource/view.php?id=9495

Feminine Inspiration

Anais Nin

Sylvia Plath

Chelsea Wolfe

Virginia Woolf

Jarboe

Emil Cadoo

Arrow In The Sky

I am an arrow that a child shot through
An apple tree in bloom beside the sea;
A cloud of apple blossoms, like a swan,
Has shimmered down and landed on a wave;
The child is wondering, he cannot tell
The blossoms from the foam

I am an arrow that a hunter shot
To hit an eagle that was flying by
For all his strength and youth, he missed the bird,
Wounding instead the old enormous sun
And flooding all the twilight in blood;
And now the day has died

I am an arrow that was shot at night
By a crazed solider from a fort besieged
To plead for help from mighty heaven, but
Not having spotted God, the arrow still
Wanders among the frigid constellations,
Not daring to return.

By Henrikas Radauskas

http://members.efn.org/~valdas/radauskas.html

Len

Cross the field moving slowly and listening with all that's heavy inside you and with all that cuts your touch. Holding a lantern that lights your way through the grey, through misty towns that spin and dance. You feel the hate that keeps the streets twisting in circles. You enter her house and you can feel anguish and blood pulsing though the air as you grasp and thrust and squirm, does it ache? You leave the streets passing again through the grey and you flake apart as you fall away to nothing and you keep your gaze hidden but animal eyes are glowing black and reflective of yourself. When it's colder I'll find you and i'll touch you and remind you of where we used to be. Blood in the dirt reminds me of us, the earth and your eyes. The black dog that pulled us apart can now only hunt you in the dead of night when sleep comes slowly and you heart beats loudly. When she breathes while she dreams listen for the silences and you may find me there.

Everything is flowing, nothing will sit still, high on oxytocin and high on insanity. I need you so perfect and lost, I don't even believe in this but here I am again fueled on delusion. Maybe I'll give in to this, burn incense and think of you in the dark. The shape of you, your edges blurry and tangible. I'll have you bound in fury, bound in madness, bound in what we are yet to have. Look what you have done to me? Maybe we will fall apart and turn to stone but at least the bed will be warm and we'll be safe here. You could mean nothing to me or you could mean everything. You can flow into me, seep through my veins and make my world spin faster.

Antonin Artaud

Moon

Bitter tasting tonight,
Jealous of some obscene tart,
Dark, cavernous, dirty with clouds
Floating between the moon and us.

Rancorous moon on the sea,
It was a cheerless moon,
Like a sick man's thoughts,
On the nature of the universe.

In the fabled dark
Where the moon had risen,
Summer's calm,
Stretched out in it's hazy foliage.

The Bad Dreamer

My dreams are mostly liquid. I am immersed in sorts of nauseous waters where the blood-red films toss and turn. I never rise up to the level of certain impressions, whether in my dreams or real life. I am never settled in the continuity of my life. My dreams are offered no escape, no refuge or guide. Truly the rankness of severed limbs. Besides, I am too resigned about my thought to be interested in anything that goes on in it. I ask for one thing only: to be locked away in my thought for good. And as to the physical appearance of my dreams, I told you, a liquid.

He gives words to mental states perfectly, he describes this as death approaching, I relate it to chronic anxiety.

Who in the heart?

Who in the heart of some anxiety at the bottom of certain dreams, has not known death as a marvellous disruptive feeling which could never be confused with anything else of a mental order? One must have experienced this exhausting crescendo of anguish which comes over in waves and then swells one up as if or forced by some unbearable bellows. Anguish which draws near and withdraws, each time stronger  more ponderous and replete. This is the body itself, having reached the limit of its strength and distension, and yet must go on. It is a sort of suction cup on the soul, whose acridity spreads like acid into the furthermost bounds of the senses.

Anais Nin was friends with Antonin Artaud, apparently he wanted to have her as a lover but she declined his advances. She speaks about him "Then he offered to burn everything else for me, to dedicate himself to me. I deserved a black holocaust. What would Artaud burn for me? I did not ask. And I knew that just as Allendy's magic was too white, Artaud's was black, poisonous, dangerous"

What I wrote in my diary last week..

I'm staying out on my parents farm today. I love escaping here and the calmness I feel when I am here. I like sitting with the animals and talking to them and noticing them communicating back in their own way. I sat in the rain for ages listening to the birds and my music in the background feeling uplifted and more free than I have felt in ages. I know a lot of change is going to happen soon, a lot of heart breaking change but I think if I am able to hold onto this feeling of calm I can face and survive these changes without any black neurosis touching me.

I have just finished reading Anais Nin's diary volume one, here are some parts I loved.

"I must relive my life in the dream. The dream is my only life. I see in the echoes and reverberations and transfiguration which alone keep wonder pure. Otherwise all magic is lost. Otherwise life shows it's deformities and the homeliness becomes rust. My drug, covering all things with a mist of smoke, deforming and transforming as the night does. All matter must be fused this way through the lens of my vice or the rust of living would slow down my rhythm to a sob"

I can relate to Anais's writing a lot. I also feel like I spend half my life in the real word and the other half within my dreams and fantasies. If I didn't have this dream world to escape to sometimes I feel that the mundane nature of reality would bore me down and eventually break me. So it is a necessity for me to read, write and indulge in dreaming to keep this world as part of me.

"Flesh touching flesh generates a perfume while the friction of words generates only pain and division. To formulate without destroying the mind, without tampering, without killing, without withering. That is what I have learnt by living, that delicacy and awe of the senses, that respect for the perfume. It will become my law in writing. All that was pushed into clarity and rationality, withered. The beautiful living and moving, dark things that I destroyed in passing from the nebulous realms off pure dreaming to the realization of the dream"

That is Anais writing about why she can not completely connect with the act of psychoanalysis.

Sometimes I think it is better to remain secretive in the way we think and act. To have everything we do rationalized and analytically picked apart for subconscious motives seems to kill the mysterious parts of ourselves. The parts we keep hidden behind veils, maybe these parts should remain behind veils? Sometimes it's just nice to watch a shadow move and dance without knowing what exactly that shadow belongs to and what is blocking the shine of the light.

I love how Anais says that as a writer you live twice, once while moving, speaking, interacting and later through introspective. It's true but not just through writing, we live lots of different lives through our memories and as they become hazy and stained with time who knows what we actually lived or what we dreamed, It all just flows into one beautiful mess caught in our mind's eye.

Dark Poet by Antonin Artaud

Dark Poet, a maid's breast
Haunts you,
Embittered poet, life seethes
And life burns,
And the sky reabsorbs itself in rain,
Your pen scratches at the heart of life.

Forest, forest, alive with your eyes,
On multiple pinions;
With storm-bound hair,
The poets mount horses, dogs.

Eyes fume, tongues stir,
The heavens surge into our senses
Like blue mother's milk;
Women, harsh vinegar hearts,
I hang suspended from your mouths.

Sometimes I just want to write to you and tell you about how I'm lost in all the mundane details that are blinding me from all light. Lines from books, the way the sky darkens, All that's musical, all that cuts me. The days seem longer now but in reality they're shortening with the chill I feel in the air. I wake up without you and wonder if you also feel the cold rising. I dreamt we were lost in a desert with the sand stinging our eyes and our mouths breathing out fire. We were searching for scorpions among the sand dunes convinced they held magic in their poison. Drunk on our delusions and mirages that spun around in our heads like a carnival ride that would not stop. These were our happiest moments dancing with dreams and fleeing from reality. We felt so radiant it was like we had drunk the moon and would glow for an eternity.

Coming down is like staring at yourself through shards of broken mirror, nothing quite fits together In a way you find familiar. The veiled parts of yourself rise up to the surface, nothing is hidden now.

"The morning I got up to begin this book I coughed. Something was coming out of my throat, it was strangling me. I broke the thread that held it and yanked it out. I went back to bed and said I have just spat out my heart. There is an instrument called the quena, made of human bones. It owes it origin to the worship of a Indian mistress. When she died he made a flute out of her bones. The quena has a more penetrating, more haunting sound than the ordinary flute. Those who write know the process. I thought of it as spitting out my heart only I do not wait for my love to die" Anais Nin on writing House Of Incest.

Sarah Jaffe

Love her voice.

Leon Spilliaert

Like tying a knot
You stiffened to me
And when it got taut
You tore yourself free

Oh, darlin,' how could you dare?
You won't be climbing my dark hair
From reservoirs of maiden stars
Lead us on

You will not find the forest floor
Where I lie
Oh, darlin,' it's not your kiss
Pressing me deep in the loneliness
As crimson leaves fall from the trees
As we roll
And shadows bow on the path
Where we stroll

I want to erase the contours we made
And tumbling from grace
How quickly we fade
Oh, darlin,' how could you dare?
You won't be climbing my dark hair
As pounding waves
Flood through the maze
We adore

You will not walk by my side
Evermore
You will not press my
Midnight mouth
Evermore
You will not see yourself in me
Evermore