To Use or Not to Use? Steroids

It is obvious that most macho weightlifters and extremely agile runners can thank their muscles to steroids. It really should be up to them since it is a personal risk. It enhances physical fitness, like a catalyst to body building. But that comes paired with possible infertility and manic conditions. Every individual over the age of 18 is old enough to make decisions for them. If they must use them, then they should.

International competitions have banned the use of steroids because it gives certain athletes an advantage over non-users. This makes sense, but the use of steroids should not be banned if it is for recreational purposes. When competing for money or a worthy title, its use should be excluded. But steroids as a whole cannot be taken away. If it is ones will, then let them be. They are only harming themselves and if they want to deal with the consequences, they can.

Physical fitness, ripped muscles, and extraordinary strength are attractive to most people, and if steroids have to be used to achieve it, they will. Athletes look and feel good about themselves, the way plastic surgery covers up insecurities on women. Morals should not come in to play when talking about steroids. Everyone leads their own lives, doing what makes them feel the best. For some, it is being physically fit, whether it is attained by hitting the gym or hitting the steroids.

People are going to die eventually from one thing or another. When using steroids, one puts themselves at risk to infertility, bloated faces, and even an increased risk for liver cancer. Individuals have to analyze what they are willing to go through and if they believe they can handle it. Many people commit "mistakes" even though they may know the consequences before hand. Steroids do have positive effects and risky negative ones. It is all up to the person using them to decide whether it is worth it.

The downfall to it is that younger athletes mimic older ones, and consequently, begin to use them too. Athletes using steroids are all over the media, media which is easily accessible to young athletes. Seeing anabolic steroids as an option, they decide to take it too. Children as young as elementary and middle schoolers begin using steroids. A large chunk of high schoolers and collegiate athletes use anabolic steroids as well.

I believe steroids are found in dietary supplements but in smaller doses, therefore having mitigated effects. The larger, more concentrated the dose, the more potent and visible the effects will be. If steroids are used beginning in the middle school years all the way up to adulthood, the effects can begin to take effect even earlier on, with a sure future of infertility and liver cancer. Steroids could cause hypertension and coronary artery disease, acne, the stop of the lengthening of bones, and psychiatric conditions leading to violence.

Media exposure and marketing campaigns hide the cruel world of steroids. They sugar coat infomercials, making it seem okay to consume steroids. The line between the truth and the lies is hazy, not clearly establishing all of the things steroids can do to your body. Peer relationships, success, and self-image are easily manipulated through its use. Steroids equal a "hot body", which usually translates to instant popularity, materialistic friendships, and only temporary success. Eventually the effect will wear out and the only thing left will be your personality, no longer your body.

Professional athletes have it hard when it comes to reaching for success. The media's perception of the "ideal body" does not make it any easier. But then when information leaks out that a professional player uses steroids, it becomes headline news. There is too much pressure on them to be perfect, leading to the inevitable use of steroids.

My advice to younger athletes would be that everything has its time, and they are still underage. Upon becoming an adult, then is when one can make the decision for their own body, just the way the rules are for body piercings and tattoos. In younger people, the effects are more profound and addiction is easier. But then again, you have to live your life and not let anyone stop you from doing what you want to do. That's when the role of your best judgment comes in. You decide.