A former bodybuilder is opening up about the struggles he encountered while using anabolic steroids.
Personal trainer and former bodybuilder Josh Williams was introduced to steroids by a friend and began taking them, believing it was his only way to succeed in bodybuilding.
Williams quickly started seeing results with his body and in competitions, where he placed first and second in two events just six months after first taking the medicines.
"It's obviously a lot faster than when you're doing it naturally, you can expect to gain maybe 10 to 12 pounds of muscle within a matter of weeks," Williams told AM.
"So that could be six to eight weeks and you'd notice a pretty significant change."
Williams said initially the steroids made him feel like he was "on top of the world", but it didn't last.
"It was tough because you kind of underestimate the power of what you're putting in your body," he said.
"When you're younger, you think you are invincible, so you're ready to kind of take on anything at that point and you don't probably take your health as seriously."
He said he started noticing his anger spiral out of control due to the increased levels of testosterone.
"I noticed my hair was falling out. I noticed I had increased anxiety. I had sleep apnea. There's a massive list of side effects that came from the back of that," Williams said.
Despite all these side effects, he kept taking steroids for two to three years for a combination of reasons.
"I was obviously competing on and off and I wanted to get out there and give my best shot," he said.
"It's just kind of the norm, jumping on those stages, every single person on there is taking stuff. So it was either take it and try placing and taking it out, or not placing at all."
But Williams admitted there was an element of addiction that continued to keep him hooked.
"The pumps in the gym are incredible - your performance, your strength, goes through the roof," he told AM.
"If you are someone that really likes training already, you're kind of enhancing the enjoyment you have for that passion... which is very dangerous and it's a big reason why I struggled to come off."
The turning point for Williams was when he started to see the impact it was having on his loved ones.
"I started getting very aggressive, pushing people away that I loved. I started having episodes, punching holes in walls, not being myself and I started abusing drugs and alcohol just trying to kind of cope with all the feelings that I was feeling internally," he told AM.
"I started getting pretty depressed. My business started falling apart, friendships started to deteriorate. Relationships as a whole, so, I think on my last show, I said to myself, 'I'm not going to be touching this anymore'."
Watch the full interview with Josh Williams above.
