What I Learned Researching Steroids

When you think of drugs most people think of cocaine, and marijuana. Most people don’t think of steroids, that’s because so many people underestimate the horrible affects steroids can do. Just like any other drug steroids can be deadly. Most people take steroids because they feel the need to have a competitive edge over another teammate in sports. Sports are getting so competitive these days that some people will do what ever they can to get ahead of everyone else. Most people who take steroids don’t realize the harm they are doing to themselves. Most men don’t realize that when taking steroids you start so have side affects that most women have. You start to form breast and get a high voice, and it’s the opposite for women. People that work with stopping drugs need to crack down on steroids because it’s getting more and more common. The number of kids who are taking it is getting higher and higher because about 3.6% of all men on 12th grade have taken steroids once in their lives. What’s hard for kids these days is that some athletes that are role models are taking steroids. I don’t feel that steroids are being carefully looked at. I feel like people such as teachers need to inform their students about steroids because every year competition in sports is getting higher and higher. One thing that is happening to try and stop steroids is that the government and sports commissioners are putting higher consequences on taking steroids. Overall I think that steroids are a big problem because teachers don’t inform kids about steroids compared to other drugs so kids don’t know what can happen if you take the toxic drug.

One thing I learned is all the side affects that can happen while taking steroids, both mental and physical. I was surprised to read that the side affects for women where the exact opposite of what they were for men. Men grow breast tissue, women lose it, men get higher voices, and women get deeper voices. But that’s not is, both men and women start to form problems with their genital parts. Acne forms and loss of hair also happens. Those are some horrible physical traits that can happen but some emotional problems include “roid rage,” severe mood swings, depression, panic attacks, all people that steroids get angry. Overall steroids are not worth taking.

Another thing I learned is how many different kinds of steroids there are in the world. There are over 400 different kinds of steroids and they are all competing against the others, even though the most common one is anabolic steroid which helps you grow muscle mass. I was very surprised I read that there were over 400 steroids especially when they are all doing the same thing, and most of them are smuggled from other countries.

I also learned how steroids can be taken. There are two different ways that someone can take steroids either orally through the mouth using pills or using needles which can cause HIV. While reading stories from all different steroid users I learned that when people take steroids with needles they become so sore and don’t even want to move.

I learned what exactly steroids are, a supplement to enhance skeletal bone mass. I learned that not all steroids are legal. Some are used for medical reasons, and others you can buy at U.S. pharmacies because are called dietary supplements although they aren’t even close to being food.

Another thing I learned is the history and the background from where the steroids came from. It all started in the 1930’s to help men who had problems with their hormone. Eventually people started to discover the side affects and what it can do to the body. By the time the 50’s came around many U.S. and Russian men were using steroids to give themselves the edge over all the other men. Steroids where never a big problem until now when competition in sports has risen very high. And steady rates of teenagers who use steroids are increasing little by little yearly.

Now that I know all the information that I know I will now be able to help myself and others from experimenting with steroids. If anyone ever talks about steroids and how their thinking about doing them I can tell them what I know suck as all the side affects, and I can also tell them stories that I have read about kids who have a future in sports and they end up dieing. I have great knowledge about steroids so now if anyone try’s to get fancy with their vocabulary thinking that I will not now what their talking about, I will now. I know what it can do physically and emotionally to yourself and others.

I know that I will never take steroids. After reading all the stories about young men who had a future ahead of them dieing mad me feel bad. If I ever took steroids I would know that I would be hurting myself, my friends and my family. I don’t think risking your life is worth anything. It’s really not worth it when you look at steroids in hindsight. You lose hair, and you start to look like a girl. I don’t get why you would want to get these characteristics even if you were going to get strong. I know that if I ever want to get in good shape and strong then al I have to do is going to the weight room and diet. That’s all I need to do to get t he physical traits that someone with steroids is getting, except I don’t have to spend money and risk my life at the same time.

One thing that scares me about steroids is the affect that the media has concerning steroids. Most kids, teenagers, and adults who take steroids take it because they are in a physical sport. And it’s never good when the star athletes who are role models are taking steroids, it doesn’t show a good example for the other people who look up to them. I believe that before people start trying to teach the teenagers how to stop they should try and teach the athletes who are role models to stop first. Because when you get the athletes to come clean then I’m sure you’ll find other teenagers start to become clean again. One thing that sports commissioners are doing a good job of is setting an example or the athletes. The MLB has now raised their steroid penalty to 30 games first offence. Hopefully this will start to have athletes stop taking steroids.

Overall steroids are a dangerous drug. It’s a drug that is underrated and not monitored as carefully as it should be. People don’t know all of the physical and mental side affects of steroids. Once you take that first injection or pill you’re putting yourself in risk of death. I would strongly advise anyone who was ever thinking of taking steroids to stop and think about what can happen. Maybe then they will realize that their lives are worth to them. All you need to tell them is to go to the gym and spend a little time out of their life and get string the right way. Because it they chose to get strong the wrong way then they will have minor affects, and possible death. Not to mention the stress it puts on their own family once they have realized that their own son killed himself doing a drug that is toxic. Hopefully the media will also change their thoughts on steroids and maybe even have ads saying never to do drugs. Maybe then the annual rate of steroid users will slowly decrease instead of increase like that it’s doing now.