Excerpt from The Steroid Deceit

Having abused steroids for three and a half years, I was always afraid of being found out. I took pains to keep my steroid use hidden from my parents. They thought my newfound muscles were the result of all the time I spent at the gym, as well as the various supplements and powders that I always seemed to be taking. Little did they realize that some of those pills I called "vitamins" were actually oral steroids.

The faade to my life of deceit began to crack, when I received a panicked phone call from my mother. She had evidently found one of my syringes.

I rushed home. Since using steroids, I had become a much better liar than I ever could have imagined, and naturally I was ready to give her an Academy Award winning performance.

My mother was waiting for me at the front door, and started in on me as I made my way up the pathway. "Are you using heroin?"

"Mom," I told her, offering her a big smile. "You've got it all wrong."

She waved the syringe in her hand as if to say, "How could this be wrong?"

I didn't stop smiling, even though inwardly I was cursing myself for having been careless with my needles. I had slipped up. Until that mistake I had always cleaned up after my usage and secreted everything away. While my mother brandished the syringe, I was doing some waving of my own, showing her a prescription form. By this time we were in the house.

"I am not a junkie, Mom," I told her. "I was given a prescription from a doctor."

"What for?" she asked.

"For steroids," I said, "only steroids."

She still looked doubtful, so I said, "I'll go show you."

I went up to my room and returned with a vial. "See," I said, showing her the vial, and then repeated, "It's only steroids."

It's only steroids. As a parent I can tell you that if I heard those words from one of my two boys I would be as concerned as if my child had announced, "Don't worry, it's only heroin."

I made a big show of throwing out the syringe and vial in front of my mother, My mother appeared pacified. Luckily, she didn't know anything about steroids, and what I was saying must have sounded reasonable. Besides, my tossing out the vial and syringe clearly demonstrated that I didn't have a problem. What she didn't know was that I had a secret stash in my closet with dozens more vials and needles.

It was also a good thing she didn't look closely at the prescription, or she might have wondered why a vet was prescribing a drug to a human. In my hunt for bigger and better steroids I had found a veterinarian willing to write me a scrip for equipoise, a steroid prescribed for horses. As if that wasn't bad enough, I had made copies of the prescription. I didn't even have horse sense. I was a drug abuser with an illegal prescription covering up his habit by lying.

I wish my mother hadn't trusted me. I wish she had challenged me. I wish she had taken note of all the warning signs my body and behavior were giving off, and had pulled me up short.

According to the U.S. Center of Disease Control, up to 6% of high school students have tried, or are using, steroids. Even if that figure is wildly exaggerated - even if it's only half of that number - we are still talking about an incredible number of young people using steroids.

Teens typically use steroids to get buff, or try and get an athletic edge. What they don't take into account is the potential hazards that come with the drugs.

Some of the side effects include: Psychological addiction; Depression and mood swings; Insomnia; Severe acne; Hair loss; Infertility; Liver disease; Testicular atrophy; Arteriosclerosis; Heart disease; Permanent stunting of growth; Feminization of males including breast swelling (gynecomastia - also known by steroid users as "bitch tits"); Stretch marks; Water retention; High blood pressure; Tendon and ligament damage

Specific side effects of females are: Virilization (becoming more masculine) of females, with such symptoms as excessive face and body hair, deepening of the voice which is irreversible; suppression of menses; decreased breast size; and enlargement of the clitoris;

It is hard to believe that given all the health risks associated with steroids that they continue to grow in popularity. I am afraid that either the message of their dangers isn't getting out, or maybe it's just that the other "message" is so much more prevalent that it's hard to refute. When people look at the hard, muscled bodies presented by smiling, oversized human beings, they see a tempting portrait. Users and potential users are seduced by this picture of health and vitality. The picture doesn't show the strain on the arteries, the wear and tear on the heart, or the pinball effect on the psyche.

Because society has not yet raised enough red flags over steroid use, the burden for this scrutiny has to fall on parents and loved ones. At the time I abused steroids they were an "under the radar" drug; my parents didn't even know what they were. Public awareness about steroids has grown, but judging from their increased popularity, teens and adults have not yet come to the realization that using them means playing Russian roulette.

To protect their children from the dangers of steroids, parents need to be vigilant. For their own good, no child should be able to get away with what I did. It was wrong of me to pretend indifference about my drug habit and proclaim, "It's only steroids."

Steroid use is the hidden epidemic. Somehow the war on drugs has missed this target. Parents can't afford to turn a blind eye, though. Among the warning signs parents should be looking for in a child who might be using steroids is: A rapid increase in the musculature of your child; Your child's preoccupation or obsession with "getting big"; An outbreak of acne (predominately on chest and back) far and above the usual; Pronounced mood swings;The presence of muscle magazines (look for the usual smiling steroid figures on the cover). There's an old axiom: if it's too good to be true, beware. Those bodies are too good to be true;

Vials and pills and syringes - it is up to you to read the labels. I told my parents that the oral steroids I was taking were vitamins. Watch out for the following pills: Anadrol; Dianabol; Winstrol; tamoxifen; clenbuterol; clomifen citrate; masterolone

Anything in a vial is suspect (if it is in a vial, it is usually vile). The brand names are many and varied, but look for the following substances: stanazalol; nandrolone decanoate; nandrolone phenilpropionate; dromastolone dipropionate; and testosterone.

Despite all those misleading advertisements which claim you can lose 10 pounds of fat and put on 10 pounds of muscle in just a few days, it doesn't happen that way. The human body doesn't change overnight. When not using steroids, professional athletes are hard-pressed to put on 10 pounds of muscle in a year, even with rigorous workouts. If your child suddenly sprouts muscles, it is your job to be suspicious. Don't be surprised if your teen credits those muscles to his or her pumping iron, and taking protein shakes and supplements. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that those pills and shakes are all but worthless. Invariably, the spokesperson for those kinds of products is a steroid abuser. The fact is that those supplements will not pack on the pounds and muscles as the manufacturers claim. Steroids will do that. They might also cause you to die or go crazy getting those muscles, but that's not something you are ever likely to hear coming out of the mouth of Mr. Big Biceps.

What should a parent do if they discover that their child is using steroids? One of the first priorities is opening up a dialogue with your child and start discussing this risky behavior. One of my favorite sayings is, "There is nothing uglier than truth when it is not on your side." Truth is a great antidote to combating steroid usage.

From the onset I would impress upon the child that what they are doing is both illegal and harmful. If you take a steroid, in the eyes of the law it's the same thing as popping an amphetamine or Quaalude. Possession of steroids is a federal offense, and can result in jail time of up to one year in prison along with a fine up to a thousand dollars. If you manufacture or distribute steroids, the penalties are much more severe. It is common for many steroid users to sell or distribute their drugs. Doing a "favor" for another user can now result in a jail sentence.

Expect your child to be defensive. When you start explaining about health risks associated with steroids, you are sure to hear, "I don't know anybody who has had those kinds of problems." It is entirely possible they'll be telling the truth. You will have to explain that sometimes the effects are not immediate, and sometimes they can't be seen. Tell them that steroids are like cigarettes; often they debilitate over time.

You also have to try and impress upon them what I think of as "the X Factor." Every day more evidence comes forward showing the detrimental effects of steroids. It's only recently that steroids have been linked with depression, just as there have only been preliminary studies on steroids being a possible "gateway" drug. Before the mid-nineties, though, no one was talking about 'roid rage. And before that no one had any idea about the potential for kidney damage and arteriosclerosis due to steroid usage.

Your child will tell you that steroids work, and he'll be right. They do work, but it's one of those cases of their working too well. Your child might not want to hear about heart disease or liver tumors or hardening of the arteries. You will hear about the strength gains, and the "incredible" workouts. Your response should be, "At what cost?" The human body is designed for certain maximum levels. Those who abuse steroids can, and do, spend more time at the gym or on the playing field, and are able to push themselves harder and longer. Sooner, usually than later, though, the human body rebels; joints tear and ligaments rip. It isn't surprising that sports medicine has seen an epidemic of career ending injuries in the past decade. Steroids have given athletes a false platform upon which to perform; when that platform collapses, too often it is game, set, and match. This trend of serious injuries extends from high schools to the professional levels. Sports doctors say they are seeing a huge increase in tendon and muscle ruptures. That isn't a coincidence. When bodies get pushed too hard, they snap even harder.

Student athletes are under enormous pressure to perform and that makes steroids tempting. Non-athletes feel their own pressures; everyone wants to look "buff" and fit. Parents should also tell their children that steroids are cheating. In simple terms of right and wrong, they are wrong, and you don't want your child to be a cheater. If your son or daughter is looking for an athletic advantage, tell them that you don't believe in winning at all costs and neither should they. Stress to them that the muscles they think they are getting are artificial and temporary, and if they want the real thing then they are going to have to work for it. Talk to your child and make sure his or her self-esteem is not dependent on body image. This will probably be another case where your child thinks you are old-fashioned and out of it; when your child grows up he will see how wise you were (but don't expect to get thanked any time soon).

It is possible your child has body dysmorphia, with a resulting skewed view on what his/her body really looks like. Harrison Pope established a formula to calculate what he called the "fat-free mass index" (FFMI). Based on those calculations, the upper limits of musculature and build can be defined by their scoring system. The researchers found that a drug-free individual could be muscular, but in a proportional and natural way. Unfortunately, these days we see so many images of bodies accomplished through steroids that we don't realize them for what they are - fakes. Teens need to have a realistic idea of what is normal body image, and what is abnormal.

When confronting a child's usage of steroids, the natural reaction for any concerned parent is to ban steroids from the household. That prohibition won't work, though, unless your child realizes it is in his own best interest to quit. Going off steroids is something that can be fraught with problems; consult with a doctor. Going "cold turkey" can have tragic consequences. If you get steroids out of your house, be aware that your child might seek out steroids through friends and find a way to try and hide further usage from you. Don't be afraid of looking like the "bad guy." Your child might not understand the serious consequences involved with steroid usage. If you suspect continued use of steroids, take your son or daughter to a physician and have them tested.

I would also strongly encourage you to get your child into counseling. Most males will resist this, and will no doubt insist that it's unnecessary. These are the same males who might suffer severe depression in silence, not doing anything about it. Unfortunately their ultimate solution might be suicide. Without being overly dramatic, parents need to be on a "suicide watch" for a child that is using steroids, or has recently stopped. Coming "down" from steroids can be a perilous time, especially for young people. They need to understand what is happening to them. Because they have tinkered with their body chemistry, stopping steroid usage might result in considerable physical and mental shocks to the system.

When young men act rambunctious, people often roll their eyes and say, "Too much testosterone." Imagine, then, too much testosterone for months and years at a time. Your child needs to know that's what they wreaked upon their system, and that sometimes body and mind take time to find their way back to normal.

Take it from me; it will be one of the most important journeys they ever undertake.