WTF? Why is there such a worldwide hatred for steroids?

"Findings warrant further investigation and the development of intervention strategies to decrease the use of increasingly normalized muscle-building supplements and muscle dysmorphia symptomatology."

Lol. This study abstract is phrased in a way that almost implies an individual's use of "muscle-building supplements" plays a causative role in developing body dysmorphia. As if some poor soul just happens to buy creatine on a whim while walking through a supplement aisle and two weeks later their previously mundane life is thrown into chaos and disrepair as they battle this psychological demon of body dysmorphia that they unwittingly summoned.

Peel the layers back. Why do teens seek these "muscle-building supplements" in the first place? Probably largely because they have an intense desire to achieve an aesthetic standard that is presented to them via marketing and media in order to cope with deep-rooted underlying insecurities. Why do they have these specific insecurities in the first place?

Let's take a trip back to Marketing 101:

1. Instill into the consumer that they are lacking in something (physical, material, mental, emotional, etc) that is vital to their worth and happiness, thereby fabricating an insecurity.
2. Reinforce this insecurity through repeated exposure to subtle variations of this message.
3. Present to the consumer a product that will negate this internalized insecurity and alleviate their anguish, thereby converting the product that would otherwise be a superficial "want" into an existential "need."
4. Allow the consumer to give you their money in exchange for your product.
5. Rinse and repeat.
6. Bonus points if you can create an industry of various products that all revolve around negating the fabricated insecurity

The underlying psychology is undoubtedly orders of magnitude more complex than my simplistic breakdown, and marketing is certainly not the sole causative factor, but perceived societal pressure and insecurity are very likely major factors, which are at the very least exploited and amplified by marketing. After all, marketing is just psychological manipulation at its fundamental core. That is the principle that makes it so effective, which is why it is a billion-dollar enterprise that companies pour millions of their revenue into. To be more specific, marketing is psychological manipulation motivated by profit.

Or, to just skip the boring stuff and get straight to the answer of why they have these insecurities in the first place, and why they are exploited: if you'll excuse my douchebaggery in quoting my own post, the reason is...
Exquisite writing and analysis as usual.

TLDR:

Take my money!



#creatine-aint-cutting-it
 
You, sir, are far too generous with your praise, but nonetheless I will accept your compliments so I can better cope with my many deep-rooted, underlying insecurit... I mean, wait, no... I don't know what I'm saying. I have muscles... and vascularity... and god damned striations! I'm not insecure. I can't be. I bought all the supplements, even the illegal ones. I'm definitely confident in the man I have become...
banana-crisis.gif
...I love myself...



And daaaamn, thank you for sharing the link to that thread. It's 1:30am and I have work in six hours, but I'm gonna do a proper dive into that thread tomorrow. I do find the concept of gender fascinating, as well as the biological arguments for sex vs gender. I think the human mind is incapable of understanding reality on a fundamental level, and has to resort to constructing artificial categories to simplify the world out of a practical need to better navigate through life. But I don't believe that even biological sex is what is called a "natural kind" in philosophy of science. It is not given to us by the universe. Sex was not "discovered" by biology, it was created by it, just like most things in science. I think the vast majority of people engaged with this issue/debate have strong preconceived biases that are essentially intellectually baseless, and do not approach the topic with an adequate level of abstraction that is required to engage with it in good faith. I also find it amusing when people lean so heavily on what they arrogantly refer to as "scientific facts" and act as if they have the golden standard in the argument, when they clearly are unaware of how little understanding they have of the actual biology of the matter, not to mention have probably never taken the time to study the philosophical underpinnings of science and the philosophy of biology. People need to read up on their David Hume and humble themselves, lol. Having said all that, I also don't claim or pretend to hold the authoritative verdict on this issue (far from it), and I enjoy discussing it with those that I may not agree with, as long as everyone is proceeding in good faith and with mutual respect. I can always find some value in the opinions of those I disagree with, for the most part. I think engaging with others who challenge you intellectually is among of the most productive activities one can partake in. Life would be boring as fuck if you surrounded yourself with people who thought exactly like you and never forced you to re-evaluate your philosophical stances.

Anyway, thank you, good sir. I'll have a lot of fun with that thread.
 
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The anabolic steroid acts in the US were bipartisan and voted in unanimously. I know you mentioned other countries but just goes to show how united people seem to be in their hate for steroids. They make it a morality play about fairness. The bigger stronger faster doc covers a lot of these things. Sentiment is changing though….
Thanks to that mouthbreather Jose Canseco.
 
Whey protein and creatine are next. Stock up, lmao.

Code:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/muscle-building-supplements-may-put-teens-at-risk-for-a-body-image-disorder-study-finds/ar-AA1zojqZ

Yep. They're already attacking our eggs by killing millions of chickens...
 
They made everything harder for me. Harder to think. Have to lift more. More food. It's a labor of addiction and love TBH. I guess mileage varies.

I think the govt should unschedule AAS. Good enough for cigarettes and booze. Good enough for AAS.
I agree, unschedule it, you don't see folks like us knocking over liquor stores to get more money for AAS like some meth head. There's tax money to be had there as well. I have to say, it'd be nice to be able to get what I'm looking for at Albertsons or Walmart and not have to worry about getting busted over it all.

You're right about things being harder. I noticed the "harder to think" thing too, I forget to add in words as I'm posting and my grammar takes a hit, that's not like me lol. I love lifting though, and this stuff gets results. Damn tradeoffs. I also naturally have high blood pressure, so I have to keep up on my meds for it for sure especially with this lifestyle.
 
Canada has year after year lowered the accepted range of healthy test in men. When I put my tinfoil hat on it sounds to me they have done this for a more compliant population. What's your opinion on that?
Compliant? lol. If they were giving only the armed forces access to steroids I would have agreed.
Most of these issues stem simply from a public health/concern perspective.
Even if the origins are political, the way the word is these days will continue to pose a hindrance to acceptance and decriminalization of unprescripted usage.

I come on meso and on every single thread here I see some old timer complain about how these modern teens don't want to listen to the proper ways of using gear. They just wat to do wild stuff and cheat their way.
If that's happening now, what do you think will happen when it is broadly allowed (unrestricted).

Think of all the youtube and rumble talking heads advising about how to take things.
Just look at the peptide world. Only 2 glps are approved, but people are doing all sorts of crazy things with UGL varieties that are still in clinical trials.

Even social media is coming to be restricted in some places. Frikin social media!

We can compare compare to alcohol all we want, but we tend to forget what happened when alcohol was 'scheduled' (more like banned).
 
Compliant? lol. If they were giving only the armed forces access to steroids I would have agreed.
Most of these issues stem simply from a public health/concern perspective.
Even if the origins are political, the way the word is these days will continue to pose a hindrance to acceptance and decriminalization of unprescripted usage.

I come on meso and on every single thread here I see some old timer complain about how these modern teens don't want to listen to the proper ways of using gear. They just wat to do wild stuff and cheat their way.
If that's happening now, what do you think will happen when it is broadly allowed (unrestricted).

Think of all the youtube and rumble talking heads advising about how to take things.
Just look at the peptide world. Only 2 glps are approved, but people are doing all sorts of crazy things with UGL varieties that are still in clinical trials.

Even social media is coming to be restricted in some places. Frikin social media!

We can compare compare to alcohol all we want, but we tend to forget what happened when alcohol was 'scheduled' (more like banned).
Unschedule them, tax them if you want legal route. Barrier to entry for youngsters. Cigarettes the better analogy, although at low dose AAS and cigarettes not a great comparison.
 
Unschedule them, tax them if you want legal route. Barrier to entry for youngsters. Cigarettes the better analogy, although at low dose AAS and cigarettes not a great comparison.
Abusing Cigarettes don't take as quickly to wreck you though. I mean look what they did to Vapes! I don't really have a strong opinion about these things. I was just explaining the rationalization for those restrictions continually being in place.
Fentanyl leaks into the streets in some countries and people aren't dying enmasse in said places restrictions there haven't been tightened. However codeine and tramadol were easily available OTC or years. These generation of youngins though. They went hard on that tramadol and codeine train causing massive crackdowns.
 
Canada has year after year lowered the accepted range of healthy test in men. When I put my tinfoil hat on it sounds to me they have done this for a more compliant population. What's your opinion on that?
"Canada" lowered the accepted range? Who are you talking about exactly? Health Canada doesn't govern what the range of healthy test is in men.

Yeah I guess they want a more compliant population just like they don't want people to be driving drunk and smoking crack cocaine on the sidewalks. Do you really want to live in a world where you can get steroids no questions asked from Shoppers Drug Mart. Imagine going to the doctor and the waiting room is just full of men who fucked up their bodies with steroids and need medical care. Steroids should stay Schedule IV.

And I don't know about you guys I don't feel a single fucking difference at 4000 ng/dL vs 400 ng/dL. Testosterone has never made me more tough or more rebellious or anything like that. I just put on more muscle.
 
I think the govt should unschedule AAS. Good enough for cigarettes and booze. Good enough for AAS.
Marijuana is still schedule 1. Half of congress is senile, the other half can't find Europe if they were given a map. It's more likely that they raise the schedule at this point.
 
Definitely is not world wide. There are plenty of countries that accept steroid use, or do not stigmatize and it is legal. Of course cultural, legal and political differences exist between different places and people so the treatment of anabolics and hormones vary
I am not convinced this is true that there are countries accepting of steroid use, there are only countries that are ignorant about steroid use. I cannot imagine any part of the world where using a needle to draw up a substance and inject it into yourself will be anywhere close to accepted.

In those parts of the world the people are just not educated about steroids and don't care about steroids.

It's not like in Canada/USA where you see warning signs about them at the gym and news stories about MLB players getting caught using and so on. As social media continues to spread around the world I would bet these countries will ban steroids once the public starts to think about them and hear about how damaging they can be.
 
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