Teens and Steroids
Steroids affect the way you look -- physically. Even though this indirectly has an affect on the way you feel, the immediate effect is external.
Other drugs tend to satisfy an emotional need to transcend the mundanity of regular existence and make emotional pain bearable. These drugs service the more complex inner landscape of the emotions more directly.
For this reason educating teens about the debilitating effects of illegal steroids is somehow clearer and more effective.
You are talking directly about physical effects so the route between cause and effect is less convoluted.
Teens that take steroids have a strong sense that the way they look is simply not good enough. This is the emotional core of the problem.
Once you educate teens regarding the side effects of steroids they will probably be sufficiently horrified to stop taking them. This will effectively serve to halt the physical threat but not the emotional cause that cannot be as easily removed. Therapy is often needed to address issues of low self-esteem and distorted body image.
Searching the web for information on teens and steroid use leads straight to the number one link on the first page that shamelessly aims itself at the teenager.
"Buy legal steroids NOW" the link proclaims "Build muscle fast".
Notice the emphasis on 'legal'. This is misleading. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), doctors never prescribe anabolic steroids to healthy teens to help them build muscles.
This website promises "enormous increases in brute strength and raw, inhuman size". These extravagant promises are the first to pop up in a search for information on teens and steroids. Their target is our young people who feel that they need to look different quickly.
Teens are after a quick fix. Their torment is such that they simply cannot abide the longer, healthier route. They want a strong, physical presence and they want it now. Our society full supports the idea that a dramatic physical change will result in acceptance by their all-important peers.
Steroids are synthetic substances that mimic the effects of certain hormones resulting in severe disturbances of the natural hormonal balance. Teens, who are already navigating their own natural hormonal crisis, are especially vulnerable to the further hormonal disturbances that are a symptom of steroid abuse.
The full scientific name for this class of drug is anabolic-androgenic steroids.
Anabolic refers to the muscle building aspect of this synthetic drug while androgenic refers the increased masculine characteristics.
Because of the promised boost in masculine attributes steroids are particularly popular with boys in their teens who long for the hard, muscular bodies that they associate with success.
A new epidemic is now threatening boys in their teens. In the past girls have been the primary victims of a society obsessed with perfection. They have responded to distorted body images by falling victim to eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. Today the number of boys suffering from a similar malady is rising alarmingly.
The desire to be accepted has led boys in their teens to flock to the instant gratification of steroids.
The irony is that the flashy promises of increased masculinity hide a more sinister reality where the principal side effects cause an actual reduction of true masculinity.
Teens abusing steroids may suffer reduced sperm count, shrinking testicles, impotence and difficulty urinating. All of this intimately associated with the equipment most men value very highly.
Teens on steroids also risk losing their hair and inappropriate breast development.
One has to wonder how many takers there would be for steroids if these side effects were listed alongside the much-vaunted 'desirable' effects.
This is why education on the, in excess of 70, side effects of steroids is almost a sure way to deal with steroid abuse among teens. The fact is these young people are simply unaware of this.
Imagine a pack of steroids bearing this equation: "Enormous increases in brute strength" soon followed by the shrinking of testicles, impotence, lowered sperm count and hair loss.
With the writing on the wall few teens can dispute the ill effects of steroid abuse.
It is still true that the underlying problem of low self esteem and poor body image must be addressed. Rest assured that if it is allowed to lie there unattended it will not go away. Instead it will find another destructive outlet.
Treat your teens experience with steroids as an opportunity to pay attention. Like all maladaptive behavior it is a cry for help. It is a very real torture to despise the body and presence you have been given. Move heaven and earth to help your child develop a relationship with his or her self that is built on gentleness, tolerance and appreciation.
If you are a parent and these words are foreign to you, get out there and acquaint yourself with them. This world, with all its emphasis on the surface of things and little care for what matters most, needs all the kindness it can get. Begin with your teen. It is an opportunity not to be missed.
Gail Walter
Boulder, Colorado
 Reader Comments
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By: loser Posted: Mar 19 2008