Essential Oils For Alcohol Addiction

If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol addiction, I hope to bring you some hope with this post. Essential oils have been around for centuries and are very powerful and potent. I have provided a list of essential oils below that can help you take more of a holistic approach in your road to recovery and provide you the support you need physically, mentally and spiritually.

man suffering from alcohol addiction sitting on a bed sad and depressed

Everyone knows essential oils have a range of benefits from relieving stress to decreasing nausea, but can it do anything for alcoholism? Many people claim a drink of wine or two a night has its health benefits, but it’s no secret that heavier drinking can cause a range of debilitating health issues.

How Essential Oils Help With Addiction

Diffusing an essential oil isn’t going to magically make you stop alcohol without repercussions, especially if you’ve been a self-inflicted victim of alcoholism for some time. However, it can help you through the very real and very uncomfortable detox and withdrawal phases of quitting alcohol.

Addiction is 100% linked to your brain. So if you can teach your brain to alter your thinking when alcohol is all you can think about, you may be able to see that road to recovery. The idea of using essential oils to help “heal” you, involves solely around the limbic system. That is the part of our brain that affects our emotions, feelings, memories and stimulations. If you can learn to how to change your thinking and feelings through the use of essential oils, some amazing things can happen.

“If you are feeling a lot of stress the cause of this will most likely come from a memory or experience you may have had that triggered such a response. Now you know where this emotional behaviour is coming from you can consciously work to rewrite this information to trigger a new positive response instead.”
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Alcohol Detox Using Essential Oils

When you’ve decided to take the first step in treating your alcoholism, you’ll go through a detox phase. This phase is when you’re flushing any remaining alcohol from your body after you’ve quit. Your body must learn to adjust to relying on its own chemical reactions rather than the ones it received from alcohol. Unfortunately, this adjustment period is going to cause some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms from nausea to heart palpitations. This is where using essential oils come into play. Essential oils provide everything from a boost of energy to combat fatigue to calming effects to combat anxiety.

List of Essential Oils That Can Help With Alcohol Addiction

Let’s take a closer look at 10 essentials oils known to help with alcohol addiction.

woman inhaling ssential oils for coping with alcohol addiction

Black Pepper Oil

During the detox and withdrawal phases, you may become a bit irritable and impulsive. Closing your eyes, listening to relaxing music, and diffusing black pepper oil will help boost dopamine in the brain that helps reduce impulsiveness and boosts your mood.

Grapefruit Oil

Grapefruit oil also has its anti-anxiety uses, but its primary purpose is as a diuretic during the detox phase of recovering from alcoholism. Placing a drop or two of grapefruit essential oil to tea can help flush out toxins collected in the body during alcoholism.

Peppermint Oil

Peppermint oil is known for easing nausea and abdominal pain from other medical issues. One of alcoholism’s withdrawal symptoms is nausea, making sense that consuming peppermint oil alone or in tea can help.

Lemon Oil

There’s inevitable fatigue you feel during alcohol withdrawal, appropriately named “alcohol fatigue.” It’s an extreme level of fatigue that you can alleviate with lemon oil. Lemon oil through aromatherapy helps boost your energy by promoting healthy levels of potassium.

Chamomile Oil

When you’re suffering from alcohol withdrawal, then you’re going to experience a bit of insomnia. Chamomile oil applied topically can help calm your nerves and promote relaxation to combat insomnia.

Ginger Oil

Ginger oil does something a little different compared to the other essential oils. A drop or two of ginger oil in tea can boost a liver’s health damaged by alcoholism.

Fennel Oil

Fennel oil is another essential oil that helps cleanse your body from harmful toxins in your body that should be cleansed during the detox phase. Fennel oil is known for its calming aromatherapy uses.

Pine Oil

Pine is almost everyone’s favorite scent. It also has some anti-inflammatory uses, which, when applied topically, can help with mild skin conditions that flare-up during alcohol withdrawal.

Mandarin Oil

Mandarin oil is another useful oil during the detoxification phase as it helps cleanse and start the process of repairing the liver. Mandarin oil is best consumed by placing one or two drops in a beverage or directly into the mouth.

Lavender Oil

Lavender oil has long been hailed as one of the best ways to calm an overactive nervous system. Lavender oil can ease anxiety, combat insomnia, and reduce any stress that comes with withdrawal.

Essential oils can be the perfect complement to any detoxification and alcoholism withdrawal treatment plan that includes professional mental and medical intervention.

woman inhaling essential oils to promote health and wellness

How to Apply Essential Oils For Alcohol Addiction

You can apply essential oils a few different ways. Just make sure you learn how to apply your essential oils safely!

Diffusers are an easy and safe way to get the benefits from oils by allowing you to inhale them as you go about your daily routine. Find the right diffuser for you here! Or check out this handheld one!
Applying them topically is another method that is easy and convenient when you’re on the go or outside of your home. You can apply them neat or add them to a carrier oil which is recommended for safety. I love using roller ball bottles the best since they are pre-diluted!
Another method is to inhale your oils through an aromatherapy inhaler stick.
You can also apply your favorite essential oils to accessories like a necklace or bracelet and take deep breathes throughout your day or when you are feeling that need for alcohol.
Ingesting essential oils is also a method some follow but it is often the most dangerous since people do not follow guidelines or use 100% pure therapeutic grade oils.

hand adding essential oils to a diffuser

In conclusion

If you are still unsure of whether essential oils will help your alcohol addiction, I say, well, what have you got to lose? Addictions are mental illnesses that are linked to your brain and since essential oils directly affect your limbic system which is part of your brain, I strongly believe they can help rewire your brain in a positive way. Read more about the affects of addition and the brain here.