Real Stories

Read the stories.

No one can say that the threat of APEDs (appearance and performance enhancing drugs) is overstated.

Many experts agree that about one million students – as many as 6% of all U.S. high school students-have admitted to knowingly using anabolic steroids. And the usage rate is on the rise.

  • In 1993, one in 45 high school students used anabolic steroids.
  • By 1999, the number was one in 27.
  • Today, one in 16 high school students admits to using anabolic steroids. (How many more continue to hide?)

These numbers do NOT include those people who are unknowingly using anabolic steroids by virtue of the supplements that they are taking that are spiked with anabolic steroids.  Multiple studies have shown that as many as 20%-25%  of the bodybuilding products sold over-the-counter in health food stores may be loaded (spiked) with anabolic steroids and other substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

This is not just a “guy’s” problem.

More than 1 in 20 high school girls has already used anabolic steroids and the number of female users is increasing. In fact, the fastest growing user group is young high school girls.

It’s not an older kids’ problem, either. The median age of a student at first usage is 15.

And, it’s not just an athletic problem.

It is estimated that about half of the users of anabolic steroids are not athletes at all. They have no interest in competing – at least not on the athletic field. However, they are interested in competing for the attention of members of the opposite sex, and they are using anabolic steroids to look better. There is even a name for these users. These kids are nick-named “mirror athletes” because they want to look in the mirror and see an athletic-looking image, but they have absolutely no interest in trying out for any of the athletic teams.

Unfortunately, Taylor’s story is just one of many similar stories from high schools across America.

Take a look at a few real stories of people who have made an uneducated choice to use appearance and performance enhancing drugs. They tell you honestly how APEDs use has affected their lives and how they wished they had not begun to use at all.

These drugs are very dangerous with many side-effects that result in life-long medical issues to even death. Please watch the videos and consider what these testimonials show: consequences of an uninformed and uneducated choice of using anabolic steroids and appearance and performance enhancing drugs.

Don’t become an APEDs statistic!!

Todd Ganci

I grew up in a big family; I was the third of five kids, three girls and two boys. My father was a Captain in the Army and my mother was a nurse in Germany.

My mother was, and is, a very hard worker. She’s still into gardening and landscaping in her 70′s.… Continue Reading…

Pete Kennedy

Negative Effects of Steroids

Excerpts taken from “A Body to Die For“, originally published in the New York Daily News.

Pete Kennedy was just another guy in the small town of East Berne, New York. A sleepy farming community, Kennedy was known as the person to talk to if something needed fixing.… Continue Reading…

Brad Cunningham’s Story

Negative Effects of SteroidsExcerpts From The Human Cost, published in Sports Illustrated, April 24, 2006

Anabolic steroids are not solely used by the elite bodybuilders you see on magazine covers. The appeal of  these illegal drugs is strong, even on an amateur level. The guys pumping iron next to you at the gym may never be on a magazine cover, but that doens’t mean they aren’t striving to achieve that level.… Continue Reading…

Heidi Kreiger

East German Steroids’ Toll: ‘They Killed Heidi’
By Jere Longman
Published by The New York Times

AGDEBURG, Germany, Jan. 20 — Andreas Krieger opened a shopping bag in his living room and spilled out his past: track and field uniforms, a scrapbook and athlete credentials from the former East Germany.

The photos on the credentials looked familiar, but the face was fuller and softer, the hair covering the ears and draping down the neck.… Continue Reading…

Harry Gordon, III

Negative Effects of SteroidsExcerpts from Steroids helped him bulk up, then killed, originally published in Concord Monitor

The role that steroids played in Harry Gordon III’s death is black and white, written write on his death certificate ”Cardiac hypertrophy associated with anabolic steroid abuse” was his official cause of death, according to the death certificate.… Continue Reading…

Efrain Marrero

A Gentle Giant

He was our gift from God. Our first born…a son! We beamed with a pride that only parents can fully comprehend. We doted on him and adored him. We loved him with all of our heart. As the years passed he filled us with joy as we saw our hopes and dreams for him coming true.… Continue Reading…

Rob Garibaldi

Baseball was his life.

With competition heightened to unprecedented levels of success, our youth are hearing an implicit message that to be competitive and successful in sports – to be bigger, faster, stronger – to have the edge of added strength and power performance-enhancing supplements and/or anabolic steroids are necessities.

Before you today, my husband and I give witness to our late son’s (Rob Garibaldi)  use of supplements and steroids.… Continue Reading…

Raoul Mout

Everyone who knew Matt Dear agreed that he was growing up into a fine young man. A sea cadet, his life-long ambition was to join the Royal Marines. He rarely drank alcohol and did not smoke or eat junk food – so keen was he to pass the elite force’s super-tough physical.… Continue Reading…

Michael Harris

Riches to Rags

Former bodybuilding champ speaks out about how steroids almost cost him his life

A quick glance at Michael Harris won’t offer any palpable evidence of a tempestuous former lifestyle. A more exhaustive look won’t render much more about the life of a man who abused steroids for four hard years of his life.… Continue Reading…

Dionne Roberts

Negative Effects of SteroidsWhen cheers turn to depression
High school girl got a steroid scare

By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff

FREEHOLD, N.J. – She just wanted six-pack abs. So, Dionne Passacantando, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader, gymnast, and vice president of her Allen (Texas) High School class, made a decision she regrets. She bought anabolic steroids from a boy on the school football team.… Continue Reading…