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Anabolic Steroid Stories

This page was created to let you hear 100% true stories that people have experienced from the use of steroids. The stories are absolutely true, with the only exceptions being that the person(s) names have been changed to protect their identity. The stories have been told by the steroid user or someone close to the steroid user themselves. We hope if you use, or have been thinking about using steroids, these stories may help you think about quitting, or never start to begin with.

Steroid Story #1:

John Smith, an electric company lineman is a former steroid user. He was once arrested on charges of selling designer steroids. In the 1990s, Smith trained for five years in a gym trying to bulk up, spending $200 a week on legal powerlifting supplements from the health food store where he worked. He could never get himself to weigh more than 150 pounds or lift more than 185 pounds on an incline bench.

Within 20 weeks of starting on steroids, he weighed 200 pounds. He said, "I could put on three plates (that's 315 pounds) and do 15 reps, and the last one went up just as quickly as the first." Eventually, Smith was injecting three drugs a day. Hospitalized with the bloody urine of kidney damage, "I just laid off the orals and doubled my injectables," he said. Everyone noticed my bouts of rage.

It was happening in traffic, even at work, Smith said. The cops were even called there. On the rare occasion I went a day without going after somebody, I'd make a mental note of it: Hey! I didn't go after anybody today.

Smith finally quit steroids after he jumped out of his car to fight someone and realized that he had left his car rolling forward with the door open and his baby in the back seat. Quitting with a psychiatrist's help "turned me into the incredible shrinking man," he said. I dropped back to 160 pounds. My hair, thinned by steroids, has not returned.

Steroid Story #2:

There comes a time in every athletes life when he or she faces the decision of whether or not to take steroids. I entered and won my first contest in 1980, having trained consistently for three years. At the time I wasn't even aware that such drugs were available. Because the information about steroids was delivered to me in such a harmless way, I immediately got excited about taking them. So my initial reaction was not one of fear, but rather excitement at the possibility of achieving the results I craved so badly. I agreed to try them.

When I began to see the results, something took control of me. I started neglecting every other aspect of my life and needs as a human being. My work, family, friends, and play time. I thought only of my workouts, of being the best, of competing. I became obsessed with what I didn't have yet and was unable to focus on the gains and progress I had made. I kept trying to reach a state of physical perfection by increasing my drug use and training intensity. Pretty soon I was taking everything all at the same time.

I began to look more and more like a freak. People called me sir. My family could only say, "God! You're huge!" Friends used to tell me I looked like a statue. Little by little I was transformed into a monster of my own creation, and I couldn't even see it happening.

I started powerlifting and breaking world records left and right. The pressure from others to compete in bodybuilding was killing me, so I did that and became successful in that sport as well. Forty-five pounds and a few years later, I found myself doing the same thing to other people. Suggesting steroid cycles, and offering to get them drugs.

I took every kind of steroid known to man while this trainer coached me for the USA. You somehow associate the progress with the drug and not the training involved. Physically, your body becomes dependent on the drug because your natural systems shut down and expect chemicals to do the job. When I tried to come off on several occasions, I experienced heavy-duty crash points after about four weeks. Low energy, lethargic workouts, low enthusiasm, irritability, and loss of appetite. It was awful.

Psychologically, I was suffering a major identity crisis. I was afraid to look normal, terrified of blending in. Being a freak is what gave me my fame. Being normal meant I would become invisible. Suddenly my estrogen level went sky high. I looked puffy, felt small and depleted. My strength was cut in half and my desire to train was vanishing. The sense of my body being out of control made me crazy. I felt it was pointless to continue pounding away in the gym only to get nowhere.

Emotionally the damage was incomprehensible. I did not know who I was without steroids. The woman living beneath the armor of muscle was a complete mystery to me. I lived in terror of losing everything I had gained while I was on my cycle. I was afraid people competing would pass me by. I felt ashamed of my physique. Every single day I would go over in my head what my next cycle would be. I couldn't wait to get back on drugs. I would take more each cycle, for longer periods of time just to make up for having been off. If two worked great, five must be better.

Part of being an athlete is that you become vulnerable to the whim of every trainer, coach, media person, promoter, and sponsor. They want freaks. So you set out to be a freak, otherwise you'll go unnoticed. The things you are willing to do for success are humiliating to think about.

Two years ago I met a man from England at the Mr. Olympia contest. He took a liking to me and began to send me packages from England to help me in my career because the drugs are expensive here and many of them are unavailable. One of the packages didn't clear customs in Detroit. The FDA and the local police made a controlled delivery to my house, and I was arrested for possession of dangerous drugs. And so one nightmare ended and another began.

I had to come off everything abruptly, and the legal war proceeded to crush my world. I can't even say how much it cost me in attorneys' fees, court costs, fines and therapy bills, but I do know that the emotional price far exceeded the financial one. I am not a criminal you see, I am an athlete. I am your basic old-fashioned girl whose obsession to be the best at something ate away at her principles, morals, and personal standards to the point of crime.

I had become unable to choose whether or not I would use steroids. I had to take them. The sad thing is that this is acceptable behavior in "the wonderful world of sports," so long as you don't get caught. Nobody questioned why I was using. Nobody thought it was unusual. Everyone I knew at the national and world-class levels was taking them just as I was. I even bought steroids for major league ballplayers.

When I think about the decay that took place in my character while I was using, the reaction my family had to me and my own blindness, I am sick to my stomach. Today I no longer recall the euphoria, nor do I miss the days of feeling larger than life. I rather enjoy being clean, learning my body's natural response to my workouts. I no longer experience mood swings, aggressive behavior or a false sense of superiority. I look much better than I did then, and my face has returned to its original feminine self.

I was a hard, suspicious, neurotic woman while I was taking steroids. That just isn't me. I've seen marriages dissipate, families break up and financial security dissolve because of these drugs. I've seen men go on a cycle of drugs with the money they had saved for their children's clothes, and I've watched innocent victims get thrown across a bar room for no reason by men who haven't the ability to control their aggression while using. I've watched happy, energetic and positive guys go from Dr. Jeckyl to Mr.Hyde, and I've seen petite women turn into hulking no-neck bearded monsters with acne all over their backs and shoulders.

Why do we view ourselves and others as inferior, untalented, inadequate and wimpy because we may not happen to be 250 pounds of solid muscle, ripped to the bone and stronger than nine parts steel? When did the standard in our sport change? What happened to raw talent, hard work and believing in our ability to progress?

I could go on forever posing questions that I don't have the answers for, but I hope that at least one person will decide not to use steroids because of my story, or a few people in the same situation will become aware, as I did, and stop before their tragedy comes back to haunt them.

Steroid Story #3:

Kicking steroids was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. You go through terrible withdrawal. It takes six months to a year to completely get them out of your system. But once you're clean, it's worth it. Competition drug testing actually saved my life because steroids were destroying me.

Do you want to know what happened to me the night I kicked steroids? Well, I had taken $2,000 of my hard-earned savings money I had put in the bank to buy a house some day, and I ordered some HGH (human growth hormone.) I'm in the bathroom all by myself. I live alone. No one knows I'm there. I'm ready to plunge a two-inch needle into my gluteus muscle. I catch a view of myself in the mirror. I see zits breaking out on my arms and chest. My face is bloated. I say: You know what? This is insanity! Insanity! The unmanageability of my life right now. I've just taken two grand from my life savings and look at me. I'm ready to inject myself with a human growth hormone derived from the pituitary glands of dead people who aren't even tested for AIDS. I called the guy the next day and told him to send me my money back. That was the last time I took steroids and thank God, it will remain the last time.

Steroid Story #4:

(This story is told by one man about someone he was very close to growing up.)

I knew a guy (we'll call him Jimmy Smith,) who was liked by everyone. He use to be my best friend. He and I began lifting weights at the same time (while we were in high school.) He and I both vowed we would never use steroids. We both talked about steroid users everyday as well. How they have such weak minds, they don't train as hard as someone natural, they eat whatever they want and still stay lean etc.

We both graduated high school and and then went off to college. Jimmy all growing up got straight A's in school, was a great athlete who excelled in wrestling, football and then bodybuilding, and was a great friend to many. I don't know what made him just suddenly change, but it seemed like out of nowhere, he began hanging out with people that we use to talk about (alcoholics, and drug users,) staying up late, and just being in a bad mood all the time.

He was living with a good friend of his off campus (for free), and he told Jimmy he had to leave because he was just getting out of control. Jimmy left and moved into the dorms with his girlfriend. All Jimmy cared about was lifting weights. He ended up quitting the college football team (his dream was to go to The NFL.) He became very abusive and his girlfriend (the love of his life) broke up with him and kicked him out of her dorm. He ended up getting his own apartment.

She ended up getting a new boyfriend and when Jimmy found out about this, it made him furious. He went to her dorm one night and broke in. Her new boyfriend was there. Jimmy beat the crap out of her boyfriend and ended up going to the county jail for 30 days. While he was in jail, he wasn't able to workout or eat well and he lost 15 pounds. He then got out of jail and said he was changed for good. He said he did nothing but read The Bible while he was in jail and it changed him. He said he was done using steroids because he realized how crazy they made him.

Well, that lasted for about 2 days and then he was injecting all over again. He said he was just going to finish the steroids that he already had because there was no use in wasting them since he had already paid for them. (This is the denial that steroid users go through.) Well, his behavior started all over again. He ended up spending all of his money on steroids instead of paying his rent. The landlord then evicted him. All of this has happened to him before he ever even turned 25 years old. I am not very close to him any more because of the way he has changed because of his use of steroids. The latest I heard of him, is that he is working at some boring job that he hates for $9.00 an hour. I loved this guy so much. I still do. I'll pray for him everyday and hope that he starts believing in himself the way he use to and can get his life back on track and become somebody special- the way we all expected him to be. God bless you Jimmy.

Steroid Story #5:

(This story is told by a father about his son.)

My son Cory was a parent's dream. He was the child everyone wished they had. He was a great student, a great athlete, and he always did his chores without being asked. We were best friends. We did everything together. He would always tell me his problems and share everything he was going through with me. We had trust in each other.

When he got to High School he began to change. His grades started going down, and I noticed he was always moody and his skin was breaking out very badly. I never for a second thought that he might be using steroids (even though he had grown so much,) I just figured this was part of going through puberty. One day when I came home from work, I walked into his room and saw that he had blown his brains out. It wasn't until later that friends of his told me that he was using steroids.

The Steroid Truth

Who Uses Steroids?

What Are The Real Side Effects?

What Do They Look Like?

Where To Get Steroids

How Are They Taken?

What Is Steroid Abuse?

Are Steroids Illegal?

Steroid Alternatives

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