With Major League Baseball starting anew, the headlines return to the Mitchell Report and visions of The Steroids Era are renewed in everyone’s minds. This year the league will have to work a little harder to test its athletes for illegally juicing up and to restore their credibility. The whole scenario has become a controversy. Some baseball fans wonder why is it that the athletes have to be tested for drugs? If it helps the players score big, why shouldn’t they take drugs?

Many steroids and other performance-enhancement drugs can be used legally to help treat people suffering from serious ailments. When someone healthy takes them, it is true that their muscles and bodies may become superhumanly strong, but it’s not without a price. The side-effects from using these drugs can be short and long term, and they can include serious conditions like liver and heart damage. For teens, the risks are most high, because they can stop bone growth and cause other hormonal complications during the most critical growing period of a teenager’s lifecycle.

Despite the health consequences, there is also the ethical dilemma. Using drugs is against the rules of the game, it’s illegal, and it showcases the players as poor role models for the young adult fans. Athletes, in any sport, should be proud to play clean and to win thanks to their own hard work.

Alcohol withdrawal refers to what the body goes through when the addict suddenly stops using alcohol. Not everyone that drinks will have withdrawal symptoms, but those that have been drinking for a long time, drink in great quantities when they do drink or drink frequently will have some form of withdrawal. While there is no way to predict what symptoms and to what degree a person will experience withdrawal, it is advised that the person be under medical care while undergoing this process.

Withdrawal symptoms include (but are not limited to) feelings of shakiness, jumpiness or nervousness, anxiety, irritability, rapidly changing moods, depression, fatigue, problems thinking clearly and bad dreams. Some people experience symptoms that are more severe ranging from headaches, sweating, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, and tremors. More severe withdrawal symptoms include a state of confusion, hallucinations, agitation, fever, convulsion and black outs.