What Treatments is Effective for Anabolic Steroid Misuse?
It would be foolhardy to believe that many people who buy anabolic steroids for personal use,consult with their doctors before buyingusing androgenic-anabolic steroids.
The truth is, most people rely on the advice of others in determining what Steroid Medicine to get, what cycle to run,what dose to take within the cycle.
While many professional trainers know their stuffcan offer valuable steroid bodybuilding advice, unfortunately, not every so-called “expert” falls under this category.
Many people are a bit secretive when they buy anabolic steroid medicines,there are many reasons for this.
For starters, some people don’t want others to know the secret of their bodybuilding success. In contrast, others have a reputation to protectwould therefore want to be discrete with their use of anabolic drugs.
Whatever their reasons for being secretive when they buy steroid drugs for personal use, it more often than not results in disappointment, frustration,drug misuse.
The misuse of anabolic steroids is more common than most people thinkthis misuse more often than not arises from ignorance.
People that misuse steroids often do not know what steroids would work for their bodybuilding needs.
These people also do not know much about these steroids’ side effects,whether or not they may have underlying health issues that could exacerbate the side effects.
Also, these people may not be too familiar with cycling, stacking, or pyramidinguse the steroids anyhow they deem fit.
Also, you may have people that are not aware of the need to use liver supplements if they are using steroids pills that are hepatotoxic over a considerable period.
Finally, many people who misuse steroids may get their cycledoses right but may fail to apply post-cycle therapy at the end of a cycle before they begin another cycle.
These people may just run one steroid cycle after another steroid cycle without consideration for post-cycle therapy, which is a misuse of the steroid medicine they are using.
To understand what effective treatment options are available for anabolic misuse, we will begin with a quick look at what steroids areanswering the question of – ‘how do anabolic steroids work?‘
We will also look at the commonly misused oralinjectable steroids,then end with the treatment alternatives for steroid misuse.
Table of Contents
What Exactly are Anabolic Steroids?
We begin with this question because there are many steroid users today who don’t know what they are using.
To android misusing any drug, it is essential first to understand the drug, including steroids.
You should know that as you buy anabolic steroid medication for bodybuilding use, the drug that you purchase is a human-made alternative to naturally occurring hormones.
Many of the steroids you purchase are designed to copy testosterone’s anabolicandrogenic functions in the body.
How do Anabolic Steroids Work?
When you order anabolic steroid drugs, they can be used for two primary purposes. The first purpose is to gain weightbuild muscle mass, while the second purpose is to lose weightburn body fat.
In building muscle mass, the steroid compounds bind with androgen receptors of the skeletal musclethen react with the muscle cells’ DNA by promoting an increase in protein synthesis, which then results in muscle tissue growth.
Steroids can also increase bone mass while increasing the rate of metabolism, boosting appetite,causing weight gain.
With shedding weight, steroids can burn body fatrepartition excess fat to become lean skeletal muscle mass.
Androgenic-anabolic steroids offer both anabolic effects (muscle growth)androgenic effects (male s e x characteristics) when used. Anabolic effects are more desirable to bodybuilders, while the androgenic effects are tolerablereversible if steroids are not misused.
However, where you purchase an anabolic steroid and misuse it, you are more than likely to experience more of the steroid’s undesirable androgenic effects.
With testosterone enanthate, which is an injectable steroid, you have a drug that converts to the female s e x hormone known as estrogen when it is used.
Estrogen can cause male users to experience feminization side effects with gynecomastia (or male boobs) as the most common of this steroid injection side effect.
Androgenic side effects can also cause virilization in female users. This is where they experience side effects, such as; breast atrophy, enlarged clitoris, male pattern baldness,increased bodyfacial hair, amongst others, when they order steroids and misuse the steroid medication.
Misusing steroids will only accentuate the severity of the side effects. While many of these highlighted side effects are reversible, when you buy anabolic medication and misuse your drug of choice, these side effects may take much longer to dissipate.
The most commonly misused oral steroids are;
– Anavar (Var),
– Anadrol (Drol),
– Dianabol (D-bol),
– Winstrol (Winny).
The commonly misused injectable steroids include;
– Testosterone Enanthate (Test),
– Deca-Durabolin (Deca),
– Equipoise (EO),
– Durabolin.
Ways of Taking Steroids
You may buy an anabolic steroid to run a cycle. This is where you take specified doses of your steroid medication over a particular length of time.
With cycling, you stop using the steroid at the end of the timeframe. Then you undergo post-cycle therapy to restore your normal hormone levels before you start a second cycle.
You also run a stack of various steroids. Stacking means that you are running more than one steroid concurrently.
Another way of taking steroids is through a process known as pyramiding. This is where you increase the Dosage of your steroid throughout your cycle.
When you reach a peak dosage within the cycle, you gradually reduce your Dosage until you approach the end of the cycle.
It is possible to misuse steroids in all three ways. With cycling, you will misuse steroids if you take a higher than recommended daily or weekly Dosage.
If you run a cycle for much longer than recommended, you would be misusing the steroid or steroids used in the cycle.
Similarly, stacking multiple steroids without consulting with your doctor or without the recommendation of a highly qualified bodybuilding instructor can be dangerous.
This is another form of misusing steroids, even though the Dosage of steroids taken within the stacking cycle may become highly recommended.
Misuse of steroids during pyramiding may involve the use of extremely high doses, to begin with, even though the Dosage may taper down eventually.
It is necessary to note that the steroid cycle that works for one individual may not necessarily work for you. Each individual is unique in that sense.
Only after your doctor does the proper physical assessment is that the right steroidscycle may be accurately recommended.
Effective Treatment Options for Steroid Misuse
As you order steroids and misuse or abuse the drug, some form of rehabilitation may be required. The severity of the side effects from steroid misuse often determines what form of rehab would be ideally suited.
Typically, there are three forms of rehab,these include;
1. Inpatient Rehab Treatment:
This is where patients are admitted to a rehab facility,they may stay there for as long as 1 to 3 months, depending on their response to treatment.
Patients would be subjected to several treatment forms at the facility, including; psychotherapygroup counseling.
A highly qualified psychotherapist usually performs psychotherapy. At the same time, group counseling enables patients with substance abuse problems to meet as a group to discuss both their challengessuccess during recovery.
Other treatments for steroid misuse as rehab facilities may include; meditationyoga.
2. Outpatient Rehab Treatment:
With outpatient rehab treatment, patients with misused steroids would be required to attend scheduled psychotherapygroup counseling sessions at the rehab facility, but while coming from the home.
The treatment may not be as intense as inpatients, but that does not take away its effectiveness.
3. Intensive Outpatient Rehab Treatment:
With this type of steroid misuse rehabilitation treatment, the patient would not be admitted to the facility.
Still, they would be required to attend a highly intense rehab program consisting of group counselingpsychotherapy, amongst other treatments.
Such patients would usually visit such rehab facilities for several days a week (usually between 34 days),they would spend a tremendous amount of time while at the facility.
The whole point behind rehab is to help those that misuse steroids too;
– Combat addiction,
– Manage impulsivenessthe compulsion for steroid use,
– Manage those triggers that can compel them to misuse steroids,
– Build their self-confidenceself-esteem,
– Provide them with practical strategies that can help them overcome any unhealthy issues that they may have regarding their body image, for example.
Conclusion
A counselor would treat each case individuallyprovide a treatmentrecovery roadmap specific to each patient.
This plan would typically be to help the patient to get over the physical side effects (including withdrawal symptoms) of steroid misuse while dealing with the psychological issues that may have led to the misuse in the first place.
There will also be a consideration for care after recovery. This is necessary to ensure that patients do not relapse in the futurethat the necessary support system is in place (usually involving family, friends,work colleagues) to help such patients avoid any future relapse.
Reference Resource:
https://www.medicinenet.com/anabolic_steroid_abuse/article.htm
https://www.rehabs.com/guide/guide-steroids-abuse-treatment/