Critical Response 2: A Teen Who Abused Steroids

Seeing the perfect bodies in magazines, at the gym, or on t.v. can really put pressure on you to want to look exactly like them. I am doing my response on a story of a teenage guy who wanted just that; he wanted to look just as big or strong, if not better, as other people he saw. This story is on the National Institute of Drug Abuse website for teens. It is focussing on anabolic steroids and talks about Craig who is an average guy going to college but still wants more. So he takes steroids to make his body stand out from everyone else. The cite explains why he takes the drugs, how he takes them, and what they do to his life. Craig has muscle dysmorphia,even if he looks big and muscular to another person he still looks small and weak to himself. He can't handle not being the biggest and the best so he turns to his option that makes the most sense to him, anabolic steroids. He was a heavy user starting at age 18 and was always looking for ways to boost his progress. At first, he was only taking oral steroids to swallow but when he found out injecting the steroids into is better he chose that option. The article says, "At his worst, he was injecting three to four times a day and taking 10 pills on top of that. Craig definately hit rock bottom; he started having serious side effects all over his body. His hair fell out, acne was on his back and he started having chest pains. He even said he couldn't even remember how big of a jerk he was. Obviously it was a pretty big one because he lost his wife and one year old son. His wife said he couldn't see him unless he would get clean of his drugs. Craig wanted his son more than the drugs then and cleaned up his life to see him.

I never knew about muscle dysmorphia until this article, i just figured people were really uncomfortable with themselves. It opened my eyes to how harmful steroids can be to your life just as much as any other drug. It seems Craig had to learn the hard way to get off of steroids and unlatch himself from the addiction.

Baily, Cate. "NIDA for Teens". National Institute on Drug Abuse. 4/2/10

http://teens.drugabuse.gov/stories/story_ster1.php