Forty years ago I was a half-decent weightlifter (olympic weightlifting, British student team ) and very proud of my strength and speed. Back then, as is well known now, anabolic steroid use was widespread in the strength sports and one of the reasons for me giving up was a personal unwillingness to use the steroids to improve my performance.
The Guardian today (22nd January) ran an article by Steven Morris describing the abuse of anabolic steroids by a million UK ‘gym-bunnies’ of all ages from too young to too old. They are not taking them for a competition advantage ( it’s actually quite hard to do this as drug monitoring makes it a bit tricky) they are doing it for narcissistic reasons.
Personally, I am not in the least surprised by the article, mere anecdotal observation as a school teacher has had me saying “goodness is he steroid pumped?” or for females “ that’s looks like a steroid rash not acne” on far too many occasions. You see, I recognise the effects of steroids at a glance from years of training in the weightlifting world.
So far, so good, ‘bully for me” you might say, “what observation skill!”. But this is serious, steroids are serious. We were very used to steroid rage, “roiders” they were called. It was well known that one of the world’s greatest lifters needed a team of minders with him during competition in case he exploded. Trashed hotel rooms were common. Even at my college we knew not to get across an olympic field athlete and who became a lot safer when he retired!
Over the past years, when a brutal attack has taken place which is featured on the media, the first thing I look for is to see if he is ( in my observation, a ‘roider’). Explosive, sudden, often unheralded violence usually accompanies descriptions of the perpetrators who range from baby-sitters to gang-enforcers to terrorists. Tip, check out the neck first.
The point of this short blog is to highlight the the psychotropic dangers of steroid use. You might be very proud of your physique and power but be unaware of the unexploded bomb that is you. Or indeed the Tony Soprano image may be why you are taking steroids in the first place. Either way if Steven Morris’s million users is anyway near the mark this is a serious problem and personally I would ask for anabolic steroids to be classified as a Class A drug.
