Concerning the 'Diary of a Steroid User" article in this week’s T-mag. Okay, the guy gets ripped off for $600, then neglects his kid, then feels guilty, then gets paranoid, then his wife injects him in front of his daughter and they lie to her. End result? Ten pounds gain.
No, not worth it. Confirmed my decision to stay legal. Good article.
That’s the overall problem with drugs; a lot of people can’t incorporate them into “normal” life without it affecting them in some negative way. The promise of the juice is probably just as bad as the promise of crack cocaine, maybe even worse considering someone doing steroids probably busts their ass in the gym already and sees minimal gains.
Alcoholics use alcohol to escape from reality, drug users use drugs to escape reality, juicers use juice to escape reality; the reality of nature’s governor on growth.
Good read.
Good points, I also couldn’t help thinking that the guy could have got more out of better diet/training. He said he could only bench 225 for 8, after training 15 years.
I would be nice to know his stats to start off with too.
Wow, sounds like you guys should consider reading “Leave the cave”.
FatSensei
if you choose not to use thats your decision and i respect it. however dont base it on this guys experience. he is one guy. it doesnt always happen like that.
i laughed, i cried.
i took it with a grain of salt.
jaystyles
(authors note: sounds like this individual wasn’t mature enough for a cycle).
I have a pretty good idea of who the article was about, and I really enjoyed it. Nice contribution. I can definitely identify to alot of that, esp. the clomid LMAO!
While I have never done a cycle of AAS, I am of the thinking that it is pretty much like any other supp. or life situation in general.
First off use a little common sense. Then take some time to research all aspects of what you are getting into, so as to be safe in all regards; montarily, health wise, etc… Then just dont be an idiot and put yourself in a situation where there is a chance of subjecting a child to veiwing something they shouldn’t be.
In short, a little planning goes a long ways.
just my 2cc
Phill
Thanks for sharing “Anonymous”
LOL. You guys are funny. Like it or not the article gave a true look inside the mind of a seemingly normal guy crossing over to the darkside.
Unexpected things happen, sometimes they happen when you’re trying new stuff. I’m sure Anonymous didn’t know exactly what to expect.
If I lived my life in the safe zone I wouldn’t have anything exciting to talk about, no stories to reflect on when I’m old.
So value judgements aside, people that take risks generally get ahead in life if they’re smart about those risks.
With great risk comes great reward, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Drag your ass out of the cave.
What I thought was a neat contrast was to read the steroid diary article and then read about and see the results of CT’s all-natural transformation. I have lurked in the steroid forum and viewed the competition photos of those who are admitted users. Quite frankly, CT’s physique is at least as good as, if not better than, the steroid users. Do I believe CT’s mutation was all natural? Absolutely, and I will continue to believe it until somebody gives me a reason to doubt it. And mere statements such as “I couldn’t do this naturally” won’t cut it.
I think CT’s physique demonstrates the validity of the training methods of the old-time strong men - train for strength, and the physique will follow.
I enjoyed the article. I think it was probably an honest assessment of his experience. It was interesting to see the things that the author focused on over the time. Most serious trainers, clean or juiced, would be able to relate to parts of it.
Like P-DOG said this is just an account of an experience and was clearly not intended to influence anyone’s decisions regarding steroids.
davo2 I missed the part where he lied to the kid. He said it was medicine for Daddy’s skinny arm disease or something like that and that statement could hardly be more accurate.
Thanks Anonymous, love the sense of humour.
Somehow I don’t think TC meant to “get out of the cave” by using illegal drugs in front of your kid, breaking the law and risking your health.
Hey, the law may be wrong, but this guy in the article still broke it and thereby risked his job and his family. He just seemed to take a lot of selfish risks for ten lousy pounds. Shit, I got ten pounds legally out of Mag-10. This guy turned his life upside down for the same thing, is wracked with guilt, paranoid, experiencing side effects, and spending/losing a lot of money.
I’m not anti-steroid, it’s just that Anonymous did some really dumb things. It will be interesting to see him talk to his kid about smoking dope in the future, when she grows up watching mommy give daddy injections of illegal drugs and watching daddy peak out the window looking for cops and hiding his pins.
It is somewhat amusing to me to see steriod users finding justification merely by refrencing “leaving the cave”. It is not as though merely noting that something violates the laws and accepted standards of society justifies it. Furthermore, in Plato’s terms, many (not at all) steroid users would be fools who have locked themselves into a deeper little corner in the cave. That is, the cave signifies all of those opinions based on everyday desires, which are thoughtlessly accepted and which prevent us from thinking about things truly. Many steriod users seem to me to have merely accepted the bizzare values of a little cult, and they then engage in dangerous and unfullfilling activities in the attempt to obtain those values.
How many steroid users have actually thought up a decent argument for why they should use steroids–that is, how many have actually considered why it is that they want to build so much muscle–is it vanity or insecurity about their size, do they think they look beautiful, do they believe increased physical strength without bounds is a good thing, etc? All these questions should be answerable, one way or another, but one must be able to be critical of oneself and one’s friends, in order to answer these questions. Secondly, even if roid users understand why they want to use steroids, they need to ask if it is good for them to use them. That is, maybe they really want to be beautiful in body, but will that make them as happy as saving the 'roid money for the future (or, in some cases, their health), will carrying out their desire for more muscle, in some cases as a heroin addict seeks to use again, actually make them happier, or would they be better off, like the heroin addict, giving up their desire?
I do believe that some individuals could probably justify their own steroid use, but I hardly suspect most of them have. When I see pictures of amateur guys who use, many often do not look that good at all, and it is hard for me to believe that their steroid use can be justified in any way, as their physiques still look like crap, or their strength is not that great (obviously their are other individuals for whom it looks like steroids accomplish great things–like pro-bodybuilders and powerlifters). I want to make one thing clear before I end this message—for Plato (and for any other reasonable person), it is not at all sufficient, as so many do these days, to merely say, “to each his own”, or for a user to just say, “I take them because I want to, and I do not care about your societal constraints, it is my body”. This position is the most cowardly of all. One must be able to give reasons why one’s action is good (and as heroin addicts indicate, merely that one desires something does not even show that it will make them happy, let alone be “good”), and thereby give an account in speech of one’s life. Many roid users might be annoyed by my message–good, maybe that will make them think about things. If I get angry responses, I will try to respond as time permits me, at least to those that evidence that some thinking creature authored them.
Interesting read, floobadoo.
Warhorse says:
“If I lived my life in the safe zone I wouldn’t have anything exciting to talk about, no stories to reflect on when I’m old.”
That sounds like a great justification for just about anything somebody would want to justify. It’s certainly not unique to 'roid usage. Couldn’t you also say that about cooking crank, dabbling in heroin, beating up people who aren’t like you, pimping a stable of hookers, even running a human slavery ring?
If you’re looking for stories you can tell when you are old, there are probably plenty of other things one could do that would probably be more exciting and less risky to yourself and others.
As for the original article, it WAS an interesting read…maybe in the same way it is interesting to read the memoirs of somebody who did something really stupid.
I just couldn’t stop saying, “What an IDIOT!” The author was certainly not a hero…nobody I wanted to emulate.
‘How many steroid users have actually thought up a decent argument for why they should use steroids’
‘I do believe that some individuals could probably justify their own steroid use, but I hardly suspect most of them have.’
Sorry but this all sounds like vitriolic over generalised bullshit to me. Why do I need to argue with anyone why I should use? I don’t HAVE to use I just choose to. Why do I have to justify my ‘steroid use’ at all? To you? I believe I making an informed and safe (relatively) decision to use steroids. Weight training itself could be seen by non-trainees to be dangerous and an uneccessary risk to their well-being but you accept them begrudging your decision to believe otherwise? It is well documented that lifting heavy weights can increase the risk of aneurysms because of the rise in blood pressure when lifting with high intensity. I am willing to risk this in order to be stronger? You betcha.
Some would also consider weight-lifting a ‘cult’ too, every considered that?
Floobadoo, there is so much wrong with your post that I can barely begin to correct you on it.
You and others are classifying drugs being good or bad on whether they are legal or illegal. Do you know why steroids are illegal? It’s not because they’re dangerous. Do some research.
Ephedrine and Mag-10 are both illegal now, so anyone that has ever used either one is damned to hell, right?
Ummm…why? That’s a rather arrogant statement.
I didn’t go through and dismantle your entire post, though it would be quite easy to do so, but I have to run.
Creed,
You make a good point, and you indicate an lack of clarity in my post: there is no need to justify yourself to me or any other person. There is no neccisity that you think through what you are doing at all. There is, however, if one wants to leave the cave, a necessity that one think through (by means of reasoning) their actions and the reasons they have for doing them. It is your choice whether you defend your decision in public or not. Finally, it is ultimately only your happiness that is at issue here. That is, one could perhaps stumble thoughtlessly into a good way of life, but if you wish to find some secure footing on which to base your decisions, you will need to think.
merlin, you wrote “um why?”. What did you want a reason? You could critise my whole letter–how, were you going to give reasons why it was wrong? I am an “arrogant”. Supposing I admit this, is that wrong, should one not be arrogant? Maybe I feel like your response was arrogant.
In light of merlin, I want to say right now,that any fool who has taken a philosophy class and paid a little attention, can raise practically stupid, relativistic “problems” with what I wrote. Frankly, when one raises such dumb-ass responses, giving reasons for not giving reasons, they make themselves into, in Aristotle’s words, “a plant”. All of you, whether you admit it or not, believe that somehow or other, there is a right and wrong and you can articulate it by means of thought. I made my post so that people would not think “leaving the cave”, which was a brilliant idea of Plato’s, used in a fine article in T-mag, was an excuse for whatever socially unacceptable thing they wished to do. Of course, I am not saying that one should blindly accept societal norms either–the whole point is to ask questions about them AND seek answers to those questions.
What a Firestorm!
“It is not as though merely noting that something violates the laws and accepted standards of society justifies it.”
Perhaps not to you, but for someone that thinks for themself, it does. By your reasoning, it would have been perfectly okay to go along with Nazi Germany and exterminate the Jews.
By that reasoning, we would still be obeying the flippin’ King o’ England and be a bloody British Colony. (No offense Creed.)
Personally, I answer to a higher power than some half-baked, chain-smokin’ cheeseburger-eating, wife cheain’ politician in Washington making a bunch of arbitrary laws for the special interest groups that financed his campaign. Furthermore, if you think steroids were outlawed due to health concerns relating to adults you are sorely mistaken.
“How many steroid users have actually thought up a decent argument for why they should use steroids–”
Yeah? How many politicians actually thought up a decent argument for outlawing steroids? Ephedra? Oral Sex?
If you’re looking for stories you can tell when you are old, there are probably plenty of other things one could do that would probably be more exciting and less risky to yourself and others.
Probably. But when you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you hadn’t done more than the things you actually did. You learn nothing from sitting around, experience is the best teacher (but the tuition is costly).
I learn from my mistakes, and looking back, I’m glad I made a lot of them. Learning from a little mistake can save you from making a bigger one.
How many steroid users have actually thought up a decent argument for why they should use steroids–that is, how many have actually considered why it is that they want to build so much muscle–is it vanity or insecurity about their size, do they think they look beautiful, do they believe increased physical strength without bounds is a good thing, etc?
Did you ever think that maybe people use steroids because they are really into weightlifting? Do you realize that when you’ve been lifting for decades that progress will slow and ultimately stop?
Look, just because people don’t always reach (or even come close to) their genetic ceiling does not make it non-existent. Come on, we’d all weigh 400lbs ripped and be benching 4,500lbs if progress was perpetually guaranteed.
So if you love weightlifting/powerlifting/bodybuilding and you’ve stalled out, wouldn’t you want to get the train rolling again too? Perhaps you search for some psychosis in order to justify your own mundane existance?
In conclusion, I don’t agree with everything Anonymous did. But at least he had the balls to get out of his comfort zone and take a chance. I admire that a hell of a lot more than some “sheep-man” working a 9-5 job, never breaking the speed limit or having sex with the lights on.