Prior to reviewing the last lecture, I believed aromatherapy to be an authentic and effective practice. As someone who suffers from chronic migraines and anxiety, I have, on several occasions, utilized different essential oils in an attempt to assuage my afflictions. Majority of the time, using such a holistic healing approach was effective for me and alleviated my pain and anxiety when needed. Several of my family members and close friends have used aromatherapy to treat their ailments and found the approach to be successful as well. In my opinion, this was evidence that aromatherapy was effective (never thinking of researching actual studies examining the effectiveness of this form of treatment). This changed after reviewing lecture ten. Reading the lecture made me question my belief that aromatherapy was a genuine form of treatment. I began to question as to whether this treatment was a trick of the mind in which we psychologically trick ourselves into believing using certain essential oils will alleviate whatever ailment you are targeting. I now believe that the occasions I used essential oils with positive results in alleviating my ailments, may have been all psychological. To think our minds can be powerful enough to impact our physical well-being is extraordinary!
I found an article discussing aromatherapy and this question at hand.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/essential-oils_l_5d93a00de4b0019647b010df
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Nicolette, I too was a believer in aromatherapy until I was bestowed with the knowledge from this course. Turns out, aromatherapy is nothing more the psychologically induced effects triggered by a scent. For instance, some smells (like a warm Cinnabon) would illicit joy and happiness, while scents such as chamomile and lavender induce relaxed feelings. Indeed there have not been peer reviewed studies to prove its efficacy, nevertheless placebo is a powerful thing and makes people believe aromatherapy is more than just mere pseudoscience.
ReplyDeleteNicolette, this is something i catch myself thinking about often. I feel like i am constantly questioning whether products, home remedies, etc. actually work or we think they work because we want them too or we were told they do. The only way to truly test if things like this actually work would be to contact scientific studies where products, items, and such are used for part of the people in a study and a placebo is uses/given to the other half. Placebo studies are very common practice in the science world especially when studying medication. The brain works in crazy ways that we still don't quite understand how and why. It can become overwhelming trying to understand things like this and make sense of it. I am interested to see the studies that will be conducted on pseudoscience over the next decade and if we will ever reach an answer to questions such as this one, does it actually work? Or was it just our mind tricking us into believing that it does?
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ReplyDeleteHello Nicolette, it's an interesting topic especially now that this holistic stuff is on trend and you see it anywhere you go. Last year I gave aromatherapy a try, I've been amazed by all the benefits it says brings to your life. I've been using it for anxiety, to relax, and falling asleep quickly. I usually used a diffuser for oils, also I have a couple of lotions with the same promising benefits. I had been a true believer in their results because I thought I had experienced their magic, not until the last lecture that I have found the truth. It's impressive how our minds play a big role in this and how we psychologically trick ourselves to believe in something that has not been scientifically proved.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicolette, it was really interesting to read and learn about the truth of aromatherapy, I myself had a phase where i would use nothing but oils to try and calm myself and get better sleep. However after learning the truth behind it still fascinates me as to how the brain can really encourage and promote certain behaviors just because you believe it will work and even further proves how powerful a placebo can be.
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