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!!
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.