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10/06/08
I remember talking to one top pro back in the early 90s who was known for his ongoing, nonstop drug cycles. He divulged to me one day that he had been “missing in action” for a period of months because he had been trying to recover from the crushing depression and debilitating physical ailments he was suffering after coming off a whopping 18 month cycle!
My mouth dropped wide open. Not only because I had no idea he had almost taken his own life, but because he had been on a cycle for - gulp - 18 months!
I asked him why he had never come off his cycle and he said that competition was so stiff that he just felt he couldn’t relinquish his edge. He was also known for some specific freaky body parts at a time when bodybuilding was just beginning to enter the truly freaky zone. He said he thought it was all he had to offer the sport, and he just couldn’t risk letting it go.
According to Current Psychiatry - a scientific journal within the field of psychiatry - a field study of bodybuilders who were steroid users found that of 77 steroid users (71 male and 6 female) nearly 8 percent reported that they had attempted suicide during AAS withdrawal. You may say, well, that isn’t that many - what is it? Three people?
Isn’t that enough?
I asked my friend, because I was curious how a person comes back from the brink of being suicidal, how he was able to get over the hump? He said, “Diet - pure and simple.”
Make no mistake, food is a drug in and of itself. In fact, food is the most potent mood-altering drug out there when you consider how much impact the way you eat can have on you over the course of 24 hours. While a substance like marijuana can alter your mood for a period of 2-3 hours, eating in ways that influence your body - both positively and negatively - can alter your mood ongoing.
Food can also contribute to ongoing depression or can eradicate depression in ways that antidepressants just can’t. That’s important for bodybuilders to know because of the ravages of AAS. Anyone who’s come off a cycle knows that if they don’t hit it right, they’ll experience anything from being down in the dumps, to being downright ready to slit their wrists.
Not allowing yourself to go there is within your own control. And that’s mainly through diet.
Food and Supplements to Fight Depression
Dark green vegetables - spinach and peas are high in folate and play a key role in producing Serotonin - the feel good mood altering brain chemical. Eat fresh veggies, not canned.
Beans and legumes as carbs - instead of eating bread, eat chickpeas. Mix with garlic, lemon juice, olive or canola oil and salt and pepper and blender it all into a paste.
Chicken and turkey - Both are rich in vitamin B6 which also increases serotonin production.
Fish - salmon and mackerel, sardines, tuna, farm raised Pacific or Alaskan salmon
Nuts - Walnuts are best, but almonds are great too.
Vitamins - Even a slight deficiency in Vitamins B and C can create a low grade depression. Bodybuilders rip through vitamins and deplete them because of their incredibly high level of activity, stress and fatigue. These are water-soluble vitamins that deplete often throughout the day and should be supplemented throughout the day. A cup of coffee or one cigarette depletes all the Vitamin C you have accessible to you in an instant. If you smoke or drink coffee regularly, you’re going to have to take Vitamin C after each cup or smoke.
Omega 3s - EFA supplements
Minerals - copper, selenium, magnesium
Detox supplements - Milk Thistle and others
Things to eliminate - fast food, processed sugars, alcohol, recreational drugs, nicotine, and overuse of AAS.
A Final Note:
Bodybuilding is a clandestine sport in many ways - an irony because of the very face-forward physical appearance a bodybuilder presents to the world. But think about it… a bodybuilder’s life of drug use is not something that they ever talk about to anyone in the regular world, and not often amongst themselves. The problem with this is that most bodybuilders deny depression, just attribute it to cycles and hormonal imbalance, and don’t often see crushing depression coming until it hits them.
It also means they don’t seek professional help for depression and often die in silence - true to their secretive existence within the sport.
If you or someone you know is depressed - either chemically or emotionally or a combination of both - urge them to seek alternatives. Diet helps, but so does professional help. Size isn’t everything in the end, and you won’t ever win a title if you are too depressed to get up, eat, train or work.
The AAS Cycle of Depression
Taking AAS suppresses endogenous testosterone production. In the case of a male, during a long cycle, the testes shrink and stop producing their own testosterone. End result? When the user stops AAS abruptly and without other PCT assistance, he is plunged into a profound depression because of a hypogonadal state.
For women, depression occurs when estrogen returns - not such a dissimilar physical process, but through different mechanisms.
The problem is, depression associated with AAS withdrawal may prompt users to resume AAS quickly, triggering AAS dependence and creating the cycle all over again.
What Should Happen?
Medical supervision during PCT, and/or aggressive treatment with oral antidepressants so that resumption of a cycle immediately following the conclusion of an AAS cycle, does not occur and suicide or other consequences does not occur.
