Steroids: Strong on the Outside, Weak on the Inside

Steroids are often taken by athletes to help improve their performance. They can help a person build strength, endurance, and resilience when lifting weights or playing a demanding sport. Although they can make you strong on the outside, the health consequences that can come with regular steroid use can make you weak on the inside. 

Once an athlete begins to see the effects of steroids on their body and their performance coupled with the pressure to perform, they may begin to feel dependent upon steroids for strength and endurance. Fortunately, steroids do not produce the short-term effects on the brain like other drugs. With most other illicit drugs, such as heroin, there is a rapid increase in dopamine which causes a high and drives people to continue using the drug. In fact, the continued use of these types of drugs changes the brain in ways that it creates compulsive drug-seeking behavior. Fortunately, steroids do not have this effect on people.

However, long-term use of steroids can affect certain brain pathways and the production of certain chemicals in the brain, like dopamine, serotonin, and opioids. This can have an effect on a person’s mood and behavior, including depression. Furthermore, when abusing the drug, athletes might take doses that are 10 to 100 times greater than medically prescribed doses. The effects can be severe, which include fertility problems, impotence, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and heart and liver abnormalities.  Males might experience their testes shrink and growth in breast tissue, while females might experience irregular menstrual cycles and the growth of facial and body hair. Both genders could experience acne, mood swings, and aggression. 

Another important danger that comes with steroids, when used through injection, is the possibility of contracting an illness. Those who inject steroids increase their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis. This is another important consideration for athletes when faced with the pressure to perform well, which is a strong reason some people turn to steroids.  

Steroids can either be taken orally or injected directly into muscles. Other forms can be applied to the skin as a cream or gel but these are used for medicinal purposes. When abused, athletes do not use this consumption method. Steroids are sometimes described as anabolic, meaning muscle building, or androgenic, meaning increased male sexual characteristics. The full name for this drug is anabolic-androgenic steroids, sometimes abbreviated as AAS. Steroids are drugs that mimic the male sex hormone testosterone, such as promoting the growth of cells, particularly in the muscles, and enhancing certain masculine characteristics. It’s important to know that it’s a felony to take steroids without a prescription. 

Also, some users of steroids believe that if you take the drug in certain ways that the risks are reduced. These methods include cycling (taking doses and then stopping and then restarting), stacking (combining two or more types of steroids), or pyramiding (slowly increasing the dose until a peak is reached and then tapering off). However, research has yet to find evidence that these methods work to reduce the risks of steroids at high doses.

If you or someone you know is taking steroids, consider the health consequences discussed above, the rewards of performing well in a sport may not be worth the costs of contracting an illness or other possible health risks.

How to Know If You're Addicted to Pain Killers

Prescription drug use and addiction has dramatically increased throughout the country. In fact, it’s become an epidemic. And if you’ve been prescribed prescription drugs to recover from a surgery or injury, then you might wonder about the safest way to take these drugs. Because these drugs can make a person feel good – they not only take away physical pain, they can also take away emotional and psychological pain – it’s easy to want to take more and more of these drugs.

Fortunately, if you’re taking these drugs as a result of a prescription and you’re following the direction of your doctor, then you’re taking the drug in a safe way. Once you begin to use these drugs in a way that’s different than the directions on the prescription, it is considered abuse. Also, having an understanding about dependence and addiction to these drugs can let you know whether you need to get help.

To get an understanding about whether you’re addicted to prescription pain pills, you might ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I need to take painkillers because I fear having withdrawal symptoms?
• Am I taking painkillers because I’m genuinely in pain?
• Or am I taking painkillers even when I’m not in pain?
• Do I experience withdrawal symptoms such as shakes, chills, headaches, or vomiting?
• Do I take more of the medication than what’s been prescribed to me?
• Am I taking more of the medication in order to feel the same effects I once did?

If you feel that you need to take more of the medication in order to feel the same effects you once did, then you may have developed a dependence to the drug. However, if you feel that you do in fact need more medication in order treat the pain you’re experiencing, then it may be best to speak to your doctor. Having to increase the amount of painkillers you take in order to avoid feeling pain and the dependence that may be developing may make it harder to quit in the future. Furthermore, there may be an addiction developing.

Signs of an addiction to painkillers include:

• Dependence 
• Withdrawal symptoms
• Difficulties stopping when you want
• Tolerance - requiring more of the drug to feel better

If you feel concerned about your use of painkillers, there are steps to take in order to safely stop taking the drug. First, speak to your doctor. He or she can develop a plan for slowly tapering off the drug. You can also talk to your doctor about using another medication (benzodiazepines) which can help minimize the withdrawal symptoms when you withdraw from the painkillers. Your doctor should be able to prescribe you a type of benzodiazepines.

It’s important to stop addiction to painkillers right in its tracks. Too many people get caught in the harmful cycle of addiction with painkillers. As mentioned above, this type of addiction is affecting thousands of Americans around the country. In order to be safe when taking this type of medication, stay communicative with your doctor and get help when you need it.

Obstacles Men May Face in Recovery

As the field of addiction and recovery improves, experts are seeing differences between the way that men and women recover from addiction. There are obstacles, it seems, that men tend to have versus the obstacles that women experience in their sobriety. This article will explore the difficulties men have to overcome or avoid in recovery in order to stay sober. 

Anyone struggling with an addiction is going to face hardship. Sobriety is going to bring triggers, cravings, and the challenge of creating a new life. However, men in particular may face these unique challenges:

 

Unwillingness to let go of old drinking and friends. Men find certain comforts in their relationships, perhaps different ones than those women find with their friends. Perhaps it's the difference between the garage for men and the kitchen for women. However, those friendship comforts may be hard to give up even after a man is sober. He may return to spending time with friends and return to hanging out in the same old places. Both of which can be dangerous to his sobriety. If a man wants to stay sober, then he's got to change his life, including his social groups. As they say in AA, if you want lasting sobriety, you need to give up 3 parts of your past: people, places, and things. In truth, that's just about everything in a person's life.   

Undiagnosed mental illness. Men tend to be less willing to see a mental health professional about anxiety or sadness (depression) than women. Instead, they might go to the bar or spend time with friends. They tend to be unwilling to face their experiences of mental illness and this might only keep up the drinking and drug use. 

Great stress and even celebration can cause relapse for men. In recovery, men might experience all sorts of change including a new job, divorce, loss, change in housing, all of which might bring high amounts of stress. And stress can lead to relapse. On the other hand, moments of celebration in recovery (getting a new job, getting remarried, etc.) can also trigger a man to have a drink to celebrate. One recent study done by the University of Pennsylvania shows that men are more likely than women to relapse when experiencing positive emotions. 

Getting into a romantic relationship too soon. Relationships have a stress of their own. When a man is new in his recovery and he gets into a relationship, the stress of that relationship may trigger a relapse. And worse, if the relationship breaks apart, that can also be a trigger for picking up drinking and drug use again. 

Research shows that men who reside at a sober living home in a structured environment after treatment have a greater chance of staying sober. Men who continue to remain in a structured environment after detoxification and residential treatment for at least 30 to 60 days will be more likely to transition back into society without relapse. The advantage of living in a structured environment, such as a sober living home for men, is that it also provides a man the opportunity to form new friendships based on sobriety. 

If you are in recovery and you find that you're experiencing strong cravings and triggers, consider the above scenarios. Are any of these true in your own life?  For more support in your recovery from addiction, call a mental health professional.