Talking With Your Children About Steroids
Steroids have been in the news recently due to scandals involving baseball players. Steroids have been around in the sports world since the 1970s. The difference is that the steroids being used have become more powerful over the years. The steroids used by body builders in the 1970s were less potent that what is available today.
The key point to get across to your children is that steroids are drugs, and therefore their use is illegal, unless prescribed by a physician to treat a medical condition. Steroids are sometimes prescribed to treat growth problems, asthma, aging related conditions, and other medical conditions. Various sports organizations have banned the use of steroids by players, primarily because use provides players with an unfair advantage.
Another point to get across to your children is that steroids may enhance athletic performance in the short term, but may have negative long term consequences. Steroid use has been linked with such things as cancer and unwanted physical changes in the body. To learn more about the medical side-effects of steroid use,
please visit www.webmd.com.
One interesting question is why there has been an increased trend, especially by young athletes, to use steroids. One issue is the lessons we teach our children. Often we teach the value of short term gain versus long term consequences. We often teach children to focus on the here and now and to gain success at all costs. For example, we stress passing the test, versus learning the material. Sometimes we teach that the ends justify the means, and that winning is everything, even if you must do something illegal or unethical. We must teach our children that there is value not just in the outcome, but in how that outcome is reached, with honesty and integrity.
We also may be overselling to our children the benefits of pills and other drugs in general. There is a trend to medicate children for behavioral problems. There is a trend to take diet pills and 'drinks', rather than to exercise and have a healthy diet. There is a trend for adults to take psychiatric medications, rather than to work on our problems.
In general, we need to set good examples for our children by being honest and having integrity, by living a healthy lifestyle and not taking drugs for every ailment, and by not always looking for a short term fix. If we live by these guidelines, our children will follow in our footsteps.