Troubled Teens Resources

Teens at risk benefit immensely from participation in sports. The discipline learned while training as an athlete can be extrapolated to all areas of a teen’s life and often goes a long way towards helping a teen make good choices. Unfortunately, teen age drug abuse can be found in the gym also.

Karen’s son kept nagging his mom to change his gym membership. They had joined a small local gym on a family plan that everyone in the family, except Tim, neglected to use. He’d always been so intent on his weight training that Karen was baffled when he quit going as often and wanted to change to a new facility.

Probing finally brought out his story. Karen explained.

“It seems there are a lot of kids his age shooting steroids. It made him very nervous to be around it and it actually made him pretty angry and discouraged. He’s saying what’s the point of working out hard and excelling at football on his own speed when so many of the kids he’s competing with are on something.”

Karen actually contacted the gym owner who claimed to be unaware of steroids being quietly encouraged by his trainers but Tim just laughed when he heard that.

“What do you expect him to say? I betcha if I go back in a month it will be the same kids and the same trainers.”.

Fortunately Tim is staying on top of his training, but the family opted to turn part of their basement into a workout room. Now everyone is working out and Tim vows to start a anti-steroid campaign with a few like minded teens in school next year.

To learn more about steroid abuse, visit The National Institute on Drug Abuse for symptoms and ill effects.

A friend of mine, a personal trainer, recalls resigning a job at a local gym because of his protest over the flagrant disregard that the gym owners and trainers had for obvious steroid use by teen members. This was after the gym had already lost a trainer - only thirty years old - to a heart attack that was later attributed to his steroid use.

Rather than endure the indifference of trainers and local law enforcement, he began his own private coaching business, hoping to influence as many teens as he could to keep their sports pursuits untainted and drug free.

Teen age drug abuse use to be what playing sports helped a teen avoid. Now, unfortunately, like a nefarious stealth agent, steroids are undermining the health of thousands of teen athletes.

“It was riveting, every moment of it. It began with a photo of this clean-cut kid and a brief account of what he had achieved in sports and in school, a kid well-liked and easygoing. It ended with descriptions of a son given to fits of rage, a muscled-up bully with self-esteem issues, all hidden from those who loved him most by a sunny veneer.

A roomful of reporters listened to Don Hooton describe the steroid use that eventually led to his son Taylor’s suicide by hanging.
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Sports play an important role in the physical and mental development of young people, and provide young people with valuable lessons about teamwork, goal-setting, discipline, and the value of hard work. The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs directly undermines these benefits.”

(Source)