It seems like many addicts have similar stories, but there appears to be a sharp divide when it comes to how obvious your addiction is from the outside. The stumbling drunk, the strung-out crackhead, the gambler who has sold his children to the Russian mob ... they've usually got an intervention coming soon, even if it's just in the form of being yelled at by a judge. But when your addiction is slowly turning you into a sculpted Greek god, pity is in short supply. Not even Brian knew he had a problem, right up until he lost his job over it.

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"I was actually fired when I was at the gym powerlifting. ... I was an hour late for work and my only excuse was that I was exercising. My boss knew I was here a lot (my arm muscles were actually stretching out some of the company polo shirts), but she said it was the last straw and I was let go. I told my spotter and he shrugged and told me my job was keeping me back. The crazy thing was that, at the time, I believed him."

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"So you're going to start paying my rent and grocery bills, right?"

"Nah, food and shelter are just holding you back, too."

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Obviously, getting fired because you spend too much time working out is better than getting fired because you passed out in a puddle of your own vomit for 48 hours after a heroin binge. But Brian was still just as fired, and this is surprisingly common among bodybuilding addicts -- home and work fall by the wayside as "users" spiral out of control. Jobs can become all but impossible to find because of the insistence that they not interfere with the insane training schedule.