I just watched a program, a Nightline or similar, that told the story of a high school baseball player who was using steroids. He later committed suicide. His parents and his psychiatrist blamed the steroids directly for his suicide.
In my opinion, the guy was obviously suffering from some very deep rooted problems. He would have commited suicide sooner or later, steroids or not.
This is just another example of people looking for someone or something to blame. The shrink can blame steroids because it is easier than asking why she didn’t help this young man more.
I didn’t see the newstory, but this is actually an old story too, heard it on the nightly news before. So there was a shrink that offered their 2cents? Wow I guess the quack was jealous that he didn’t get to prescribe the stuff himself.
That kid had to have some underlying problems that of course had to be covered up by his popularity with girls. What does popularity with the opposite sex have to do with sanity? I’ve never gone so damn nuts, than when being successful with opposite sex. lol. Yeah being insensitive, I laughed when I heard all about it. I also laughed when watching this boy’s father cry about it.
Too bad it wasn’t the excessive androgens that was making this kid a riot, but more the low levels of test along with increased estrogen. This info is related to a post I think I read yesterday in the nutrition forum. The info is convincing and makes sense.
Kid taking steroids. Kid depressed. Kid kills himself. Well obviously the steroids caused his depression and led to suicide, right?! Other people that don’t take 'roids don’t get depressed, especially not teenagers. Give me a fucking break. I want to put my fist through the TV(and the irresponsible reporter’s head)every time I hear a story like this.
I dunno, man, I was pretty borderline when Biotest dropped Mag-10.
Seriously, though, it’s amazing how they get away with using emotionalism and non sequitur logic to “clearly prove” it was the roids. I’m not sure if this says more about the media or the people who unquestioningly swallow their crap. Anybody who commits suicide ALREADY has some serious issues. No one is asking questions about his personal life; they’re just saying he was a happy kid and a good athlete. What was his home life like? What was his social life like? Did he have a lot of trouble connecting with others and forming relationships? These are the things that lead to depression, and may be what led him to the gear in the first place (WRONG REASONS). This is along the lines of blaming guns for Columbine. And Twinkies for lard-ass “disease”. And wet streets for rain.
As stated before, steroids weren’t the sole reason for his suicide. However, I wouldn’t dismiss it as a contributing factor. Steroids have psychological as well as physical effects.
I read about the same kid in reader’s digest and in that article they actually were trying to blame the anti-depressants that he was on like Lexapro for driving him to suicide. The article mentioned his steroid use but put more of the scrutiny on whether or not the dude shouldn’t have been on anti-depressants
I didn’t see this Dateline, but I did catch the Senate Caucus on Intl. Narcotics Control hearings on C-SPAN. It was rebroadcast this past Sunday and I’d recommend watching it if it airs again. For the record, I don’t use illegal steroids but I certainly do not condemn anyone who does. Highlights (or maybe lowlights) included:
Among those testifying was the father of a teenager who committed suicide. Steroids were found in the teen’s bedroom and blood tests indicated their presence in his body. The father essentially testified that the steroid use led to his son’s suicide. He also mentioned that had the steroids never been found in the bedroom, the coroner would have never tested for them and they would have gone totally undetected. The father was basically implying that steroids are probably responsible for many suicides, we’re just not testing for them during the autopsy. What a crock - I bet suicide rates are higher among alcoholics, yet we’re not having Senate hearings about banning alcohol…
A “former steroid user” testified that 90% of illegal steroids are fake and that a lot of people are injecting “sesame oil”. He also claimed to have personally witnessed the long and short term negative effects of steroid use, although no specifics were given. I’d love to hear the negative short term health effects…
A Division I football played whose identity was obscured testified that steriods are rampant at all levels of sports. No surprises there…
A Senate member (can’t remember his name) held up two bottles of legal prohormones and often referred to them and their labels. He was basically trying to determine whether these “legal steroids” posed the same “threat” as illegal steroids. The best part was that he couldn’t pronounce testosterone (test - TEST - erone).
The bigges problem with this kid was that during his last year of Junior varsity baseball, the varsity coach told him that he had to get bigger if he wanted to make the varsity team the next year. That was all he said to him. He didnt set him down and go over a strength and conditioning or nutrition program. You know why? Because like most high school sports coaches he is an ignorant fuck that wouldnt know a weight room if he lived in one. What do you think is going to happen when you tell a teenage boy that he is not big enough and then dont tell him how to do. Especially when the kid lives in southern Texas so close to Mexico. He will do what most kids (and adults) do. He will confuse bodybuilding with Athletic based strength training, and then look for what he thinks is a fast and easy way.
Steroids are not to blame. The coach doesnt have full responsibility, but I believe he triggered all of those events.
So please keep your children safe and get rid of “Bubba”, the I already know everything high school sports coach.
Plano (northern suburb of Dallas) is about as far away from Mexico as you can get in Texas. According to his girlfriend who was interviewed on 60 Minutes he got his drugs from someone out in front of a gym.
According to the same 60 Minutes segment the kid was 6’2" 175lbs when he started using, so I can see his coaches point about needing to get bigger.
I agree that getting rid of “bubba the knowitall coach” might keep dumb kids safer from steroid abuse, but I still don’t think that abuse was the cause of his suicide. More likely the fact that his folks had just taken away his truck and cell phone had him pissed. In fact according to his mother right before going upstairs to hang himself he pleaded with her to give him back his truck and phone, so…
I watched the 60 minutes article on this. What happened was a lot deeper than he just took some steroids. He lived in a town where baseball is a way of life and wanted to be a star. He even had an uncle who was a pro. He started getting anadrol and deca from a dealer. Because of the legal status of steroids the dealer charged him a lot of money. So the kid started stealing to support his use. Eventually he ended up in the care of a woman psychiatrist because he went off of the roids and now was suffering from HPTA suppression which in turn caused depression. So she gave him antidepressents, which have been shown to greatly increase the likelyhood of suicide in the first month of use. Then on a family trip to London the kid stole some computers from the hotel and got caught. Then a little while after the family cameback the kid hung himself.
When the reporter asked the psychiatrist were the steroids responsible for the kids suicide she came back with a resounding yes. Even though the kid wasn’t on them at the time. What he was taking however were the happy pills that she prescribed. Blaming the steroids gave her an easy way out and she took it.
The way I see what happened is this, the kid got caught up in the desire to excell in baseball. The roids just a part of what went wrong. The kid starting getting tempermantal which the father called roid rages. I think it was more a placebo effect than anything else. The kid was put in the care of a woman psychiatrist who didn’t understand what it was like for a healthy 17 year old stud to all of a sudden experience chemical castration. She also didn’t know steroid basics like use clomid to get his hormones back to normal and minimize the loss of performance that was causing his depression, because baseball was this kids whole world. Instead she decided to give him happy pills right at a time when this kids whole world was coming apart. Psychiatrists can’t figure out why people commit suicide while on antidepressents. Based upon personal experience I think that a big part of it is forcing the brain chemistry to tell you that you are happy, even when you are experiencing circumstances that any resonable person would expect you to be depressed about. This totally messes with your equilibrium. Antidepressants are way too readily prescribed by doctors who themselves have probably never taken what they are prescribing. If they did, they would understand their effects and realize that sometimes it is best to white knuckle it and work your way through things. It was easier for them to make a villan of the steroids than to honestly assess what happened. It’s a sad story. Instead of antidepressants, this kid should have gotten clomid and some reassurances that things were going to work out. I think the school official who said we all failed him to some degree summed it up best. There was a serious lack of knowledge about steroids from everyone involved including the doctor, who had no real need to study about them because they are not a normal part of her practice. She should have brought in an endocrinologist and held off on the happy pills.
That’s my analysis
Nice post Sifu. And I learned more about the incident as well. You mentioned that the psych should have included an endocrinologist to assist in her case. most of us t-nationals know this is common sense.
But do you think anyone with half our open minds, advanced degrees, or political office will EVER, EVER do such a thing? I hope someday they do, but it would defuse so much of the “crusade” as well as the “joey” and “jane” public support for government infallibility. This stuff isn’t religion, so why all these myths.