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Just as worrisome is the threat to mental health. Drug users are prone to moodiness, depression, irritability and what are known as "roid rages." Ex- user Darren Allen Chamberlain, 26, of Pasadena, Calif., describes himself as an "easygoing guy" before picking up steroids at age 16. Then he turned into a teen Terminator. "I was doing everything from being obnoxious to getting out of the car and provoking fights at intersections," he says. "I couldn't handle any kind of stress. I'd just blow. You can walk in my parents' house today and see the signs -- holes in doors I stuck my fist through, indentations in walls I kicked." Chamberlain grew so despondent, he recalls, that he "held a gun to my head once or twice." Others have succeeded in committing suicide. Warns Aaron Henry, 22, a St. Charles, Mo., drug counselor whose adolescent dependence on steroids drove him close to physical and mental ruin: "When you put big egos and big dreams together with steroids, that's a nasty combination."
Despite such horror stories, teens deny that the dangers apply to them. Willix recalls that after one session in which he warned students to avoid the drugs, two 15-year-olds came up and said, "We hear what you're saying about steroids, but could you tell us which ones to use?" Rick of Los Angeles takes 40 mg of the chemicals daily, but insists, "I'm being careful. I'm taking what I think a doctor would prescribe." Has he seen one? "I will when I'm 18."
Once on the drugs, adolescents find it hard to get off. "People say, 'I'll just take them for three months until I get the look I want, and then I'll quit,' " explains Adam Frattasio, 26, of Weymouth, Mass., a former user. "It doesn't work that way." Bulging biceps and ham-hock thighs do a fast fade when the chemicals are halted. So do the feelings of being powerful and manly. Almost every user winds up back on the drugs. A self-image that relies on a steroid-soaked body may be difficult to change. Chamberlain has a friend, now 29, who has been taking steroids for more than a dozen years. Says Chamberlain: "His mind is so warped that he said he doesn't care if he dies, so long as he looks big in the coffin."