Several types of steroids can be misused and become harmful. Anabolic means the drug has potential to enhance muscle. The phrase androgenic steroid implies that the drugs can aid in the enhancement of male sexual traits. In another category of steroids are estrogen, progesterone and cortisol, which do not build muscular bulk and do not carry the same health risks.

Street names include “juice” or sometimes “roids.” While the phrase “anabolic” is used most frequently, the scientific name for street steroids is anabolic-androgenic. Users take steroid pills or inject them into muscles, often at levels tremendously higher than dosages that a doctor would prescribe for medical treatments.

Recent data suggests that steroid use is most prevalent among athletes and seems to show relatively low numbers of usage among teenagers, a connection that may be linked to greater efforts to educate teens and parents on their dangers. In 2009, a National Institute for Drug Abuse Study said that a low percentage – about 1.3 percent – of teens ages eighth grade through sophomores, and a little over two percent of high school seniors – had ever used steroids.

For teens that do experiment with steroids, puberty can come on too fast and too early and growth can be permanently stunted. Other problems associated with steroids include jaundice, shaking, liver or kidney damage and acne. In males, the testicles can be reduced in size, and infertility can occur, as well as loss of hair and a higher chance of acquiring cancer of the prostate. For women, steroids can cause the onset of facial hair growth, baldness or thinning hair, a stop in menstruation or a lowered voice.

Steroids are also known to negatively affect the limbic system, or the parts of the brain that control emotions and behaviors. Therefore, extreme mood changes can occur, such as aggression and swings in behavior that can be described as frenzied. High levels of paranoia, poor judgment, delusional behaviors and heighted jealousy can also result, often in connection with a feeling of being indestructible.

Sometimes steroid use is linked to fatalities. The drugs enter the bloodstream and can eventually cause arthrosclerosis, or fat collections in the arteries that prohibit proper blood circulation. When blood movement to the heart is disrupted, a heart attack can happen; if flow is interrupted to the brain, a stroke may occur.

When teens or adults become dependent on steroids, they may show serious physical ramifications and neglect friends and family. Like other drug addictions, steroid users can spend their financial resources on the substance and will show symptoms of withdrawal if they try to stop. Depression may be especially severe during steroid withdrawal.

In school settings, parents and coaches are encouraged to continue educating athletes about the dangers of steroids and to recognize symptoms of usage. A focus on proper weight lifting and healthy eating can be emphasized instead to help athletes excel naturally.
 

Steroids Linked to Myriad of Health Problems is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded a report, the 2007 Monitoring the Future Study, which showed that 0.8 percent of 8th graders, 1.1 percent of 10th graders, and 1.4 percent of 12th graders reported abusing anabolic steroids at least once during the year prior to the survey.

What steroids are

Steroids are synthetic substances that are similar to testosterone, the male sex hormone. Anabolic steroids are sometimes prescribed by doctors to help patients with certain types of anemia, as well as men whose own bodies are unable to produce enough testosterone. Doctors also prescribe corticosteroids to reduce swelling in some patients, but these are not anabolic steroids and do not have the same harmful effects.

Although there are quite a few different kinds of steroids, the most common include: anadrol, deca-durabolin, dianabol, equipoise, oxandrin and winstrol.

Common street names

They’re usually just called steroids, although you may hear “juice” and “roids” on the street. Scientifically, these drugs are called anabolic-androgenic steroids: anabolic – meaning muscle building and androgenic – pertaining to increased male characteristics.

How to identify steroids

Anabolic steroids come in many different sizes, forms, shapes and colors. Generally, they are available in pill form, in ampules, in bottles and in vials. Ampules are sealed glass containers with the steroid inside. When the top is cut off, the steroid is withdrawn using a needle. Vials have a rubber top, through which the needle is inserted to withdraw the steroid. Both ampules and vials are approximately two inches in height. Bottles are like vials, but are in larger sizes. Since anabolic steroids require a prescription, much of what is sold is counterfeit or fake and obtained on the black market.

How steroids are used

Some users pop steroids in pills. Others inject steroids directly into their muscles. Often a process known as stacking occurs, where two or more kinds of steroids are taken at once in an attempt to build muscles faster. Abusers pyramid their doses in 6 to 12-week cycles, starting off with lower doses and building up to higher doses in the cycle’s first half, then reversing the process in the second half of the cycle. Neither stacking nor pyramiding has been shown to work.

Effects of steroids

Used primarily to build muscles, steroids do increase muscle mass. But they also carry negative side-effects. Users of anabolic steroids can lose their hair or find their face loaded with pimples. Guys can develop breasts and girls suddenly sport beards, have deeper voices and start looking more masculine. This is not the only downside of using anabolic steroids, however.

Why steroids are bad for you

Besides the cosmetic side effects (girls decreasing breast size and growing more hair on their body and boys with noticeable breasts), there are other negative and potentially fatal consequences to using anabolic steroids:

• Liver tumors, cysts and cancer

• Heart attacks and strokes, potentially fatal

• Compromised immune system

• Risk of AIDS/HIV and Hepatitis B and C from injecting steroids with dirty needles

• Shrunken testicles and reduced sperm count in males

• Stunted growth when steroid use begins before adolescent growth spurt

• Baldness in both males and females

• Extreme mood changes: euphoria, depression, mania, delusions, violent aggression (known as “roid rage”)

Addicting?

According to the NIDA, use of steroids carries the potential for addiction. Large amounts of money are spent obtaining the drugs, and use is repeated over time. This is a pattern of addiction. Users also continue to abuse steroids despite physical and social problems – another pattern of addiction.

Withdrawal symptoms include mood swings, fatigue, and loss of appetite, insomnia, restlessness, reduced sex drive, and cravings for steroids. Depression is the most dangerous withdrawal symptom, as it may lead some users to attempt (or commit) suicide.

The NIDA fact sheet on steroids points out that some users, in an attempt to counter some of steroids’ side effects, such as irritability and insomnia, start taking (and abusing) opioids – which may lead to addiction to those drugs on top of the steroid use.

Steroid Abuse is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment