Drug Abuse Among Athletes

The drug abuse among athletes occurs in all sports, but not every athlete consumes the drugs whether its a female athlete or male. The athlete may know his or her reasons to why consuming those drugs, at times it can become an addiction. The abuse athletes cause themselves have lots of effects due to it whether being physically mentally including their health. The athlete could become very sick or even seriously injured. The drug they may consume could be the steroids, alcohol, diet pills, marijuana, amphetamines, or spit tobacco. There’s probably way more different drugs out their that this athletes consume.

First of all, athletes don’t know the harm they’re causing themselves. The athlete may not notice the damage they cause their body because it becomes an addiction. When it becomes an addiction its very hard to get rid of, the brain is telling you that you need it, and it makes you feel good. The athlete may consume the drug because they are in pain or have stress so they’ll consume it and make their body feel good about itself. According to the article 30 famous athletes that battle drug addiction states, as some may know the professional baseball right fielder names Darryl Strawberry, “Mlb’s four-time World Series champion has tainted his resume with cocaine and alcohol use”. As well as Michael Phelps “eight-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer, in 2009 he lost his endorsement contract with Kellogg’s after photo emerged of him taking a hit of marijuana”. This are some star athletes that consumed drugs that affected them. For instance, “two percent male football players used anabolic steroids”.

However, each drug has its own affects and some may react differently towards them. The effects with this drugs could be the side effects, mental side effects, and the health risks. When it comes to mental side effects it could be depression, aggression, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, and many more problems. The health risk could be damage to the liver, heart, blood clots, cancer, and many more damage to the body. For example the author by American Addiction Centers Editorial Staff states, “Don Rogers, Cleveland Browns safety Don Rogers died of cocaine poisoning less than a week before his wedding,” as well as “the post-mortem toxicology report revealed that Rogers had 5.2 milligrams of cocaine per liter of blood in his body, an amount that is five times what is considered the lethal level.

The steroids that athletes tend to consume it has physical effects and mental side effects. Athletes can become very sick, and it affects their body in many ways. The athletes take the steroid to basically build up their muscle mass and strength. The leading anabolic steroid hormone is build by the body is testosterone. The testosterone has two main effects based on the body which is, it affects the muscle structure and affects the male traits as well as like the facial hair and the deeper their voice. After hard workouts while taking the steroids athletes consume it because it helps them recover faster and allows them to work out even harder and more often but its damaging their muscles.

These drugs are very harmful in varying ways, some might not notice the damage it causes or notice it till its to late. Athletes could prevent the use of drugs by not taking the drugs to prevent abuse to their body, they could go to rehab and get help counselling as well could help the athlete, they get drug tested every so often to keep track and do well with their health as well. When the athlete has a mental illness they are more likely to consume the drug as relaxation and no stress. The athlete may not know the causes of the drugs but they could notice a difference with the side effects, which could be the shrinking of testicles, breast enlargements in both male and female athletes, acne, premature hair loss in males, it could deepen the female voice, the excessive growth of the body, and growth of facial hair in the female. Many athletes teams band to use of drugs and have very strict and straight forward rules and consequences for the athletes that are caught consuming them.

As well as the alcohol abuse has been around athletes as well. They tend to struggle with it as well. They have treatments to prevent the use of alcohol, but at times the athlete may not think they have an alcohol abuse and won’t find help but their relatives seek them for help because they notice the abuse its harming them. At times the athlete may have its reason to why consuming the drugs if it to whether gain more in the competition, drinking alcohol and repeating the same steps over and over, it then when it becomes an addiction. There are all kinds of treatments of any kind it’s just the athlete that over abuses with the drug and harming themselves, they have to be willing to incorporate with the help they receive to get better and not damage themselves. All of these supplements they take ruins their lives and careers as well. Such as Len Bias who died of cocaine overdose which ended is playing career in basketball two days after being selected for the Boston Celtics.

In conclusion, many of these supplements can end the athletes career can cause serious consequences. At times the athlete consumes it for their reasons and might be able to consume it but at times but not be able to and could get into serious trouble with their career. Each an every drug they consume has a negative effect due to their mentality, physically, health rick and then the side effect, as well as emotional effects. It’s best for the athlete to not use because it can become a want, then need, then the addiction comes along. This drugs cause so many damages to the brain the body and the negative side effects it could do to the skin and many more. The drug abuse among athletes has been a bug issue in the athletic career it has to come to an end. At times the athlete has to ask themselves is it worth it to consume it and then get caught up and get into serious trouble. The drug abuse among the athletes need to stop.