Matthew, an ex-steroid user, shares his story:

Steroids were the easy way to get big and to be respected, especially at the gym and they were very easy to obtain. No one really talked about it, everyone just knew about it. All the drugs I took were pretty much anabolic steroids.

When I started taking steroids, the changes I experienced were both physical and mental. Mentally, I was preparing myself to look bigger, so whenever I looked in the mirror I noticed any physical change. My girlfriend and my family noticed I was getting bigger right away. I didn't. I was taking a lot of supplements, a lot of protein shakes, weight gainer shakes, all kinds of shakes, carbohydrates. I was eating a lot. My appetite grew substantially. They thought I was gaining weight just because I was eating a lot. They didn't really take into account that it might have been anything other than that.

As I got more confidence in myself I began to act differently. My personality changed drastically. My interaction with other people changed. I became more aggressive. I'm not sure if it was the drug itself; so much as it was my mentality. Steroids definitely made me a lot more impatient. I'd pick fights, I'd get angry with my supervisors at work.

The reason I decided to quit had nothing to do with the way I felt mentally, it was more physical. I started to get pains in my side where my liver is and it worried me. The media didn't really effect me before I started using steroids. But now, I see all these people who are built up on TV and stuff and I'm always comparing myself to them all the time, like, "I'm bigger than him," or "I'm more cut up than he is."