Drink spiking.... a story, the effects and where to get help

Here is a true story of the dangers of drink spiking...........

You go out with your friends to celebrate a 21 st. It's one of the best night's you've had in a long time. A big group of friends, a load of laughs, dancing till you can dance no more...... brilliant. Then at about 2:00 a.m you decide to go with one friend to your favourite night club. The music is awesome, the atmosphere electric that is until you see him. The one that beat you until you couldn't see straight, the one that put you in hospital twice. What would you do???? Say you decide to stay at the club. I mean, after all, it's your right to be there and he's no longer part of your life. So you stay and keep dancing and dancing with a few laughs chucked in for good measure.You can feel him watching your every move but no longer care. Then out the corner of your eye you see him start to move over to where you are. You know your safe, your in a public place. He comes and stands right next to you but you stand your ground and not move, not say a word. He walks away brushing up against you. You can feel every fibre of your being tense up but you don't move. You watch him as he makes his way to the door, you've survived the one thing you most feared. You go back to dancing with your friend, finish your drink and start to think it might be time to go home. You turn to your friend and make motions to get going. She begs you to stay for one more song and you give in. It is after all a brilliant night. As you begin to dance to the music you start to feel strange. The room starts to spin and the noise of the club becomes louder and louder in your head. You know somethings up so you start to leave the dance floor. Your friend is having a great time so you leave her to it and make your way to find a cab and go home. He's waiting at the door for you but you walk right past him in desperation for fresh air. Outside you find a cab hop in with relief. He gets in with you though, he's concerned as you don't look to good. You think that maybe he is really lovely after all.

In the cab you can feel yourself falling asleep but he know's where your house is so doesn't matter if you have a little nap............. you wake up and it's morning. Your mouth tastes horrible, your head is pounding and your arms feel like they are about to fall off. You go to roll over but find you can't move.....AT ALL. You look down to your feet and then to your wrists....... your tied to the bed. You hear someone next to you breathing deeply as they sleep....... it's him. You start to panic and yank of the restraints that he put you in. The more you pull the tighter they become but you keep going anyway. You feel one of the wrist restraints start to give so you pull as hard as you can until you hear the snap you so desperately wanted to hear. You use your free hard to untie your other hand and then your feet. You slide out of the bed, your clothes ripped, blood on your body and between your legs. You wobble down the hallway to the bathroom, shut the door as quiet as you can, lock it and then breathe. You take a few steps over to the mirror and look at yourself. One eye is black, some of your hair has been ripped out of your head, there are bruises from your breasts down, bite marks on your arms, you think your collarbone is fractured, it's bloody swollen around there that's for sure. You continue to survey the damage.............. the only thing is...... you don't remember a thing. All you remember is getting in the cab and drifting off to sleep. You think you can recall being carried in the door and being put to bed but your not quite sure. You remember having horrible nightmares..... just not quite sure what they were about. You start to throw up and can't stop for a good 1/2 hour or so. You sit huddled in the corner of the shower, not being able to move or not wanting to. This is where you stay until the water runs cold. You dry yourself as best as you can.... the pain is excrutiating. You put what clothes on are in the bathroom, open the door silently, wobble back down the hallway to the bedroom. You peak around the door frame to find that he has gone. Relief hits you like a ton of bricks. You fall to the floor in a heap, crying........ you can't stop it.......... you come to realise that you've been sexually assulted and can't remember a thing............... You tell no one, you're embarressed, ashamed and frightened. You stay indoors until most of the swelling goes down.... work thinks you have the flu that's going around. You don't eat, you can't stop showering and cleaning...... you feel like your going insane!!!!!! It's about two weeks later, the swelling has gone down more, your house is cleaner than it ever has been, you can't remember the last night you actually slept, the last full meal you actually ate..... your sat on the couch looking at the t.v but not really watching it. Something inside of you snaps............... you find your keys, put your shoes on, open the front door, the light from the sun is blinding, put your sunnies on and leave your house for the first time in over two weeks. You start to walk until you reach your destination 30 minutes later.............. the women's shelter.......... you stand out the front not sure what to do next. Someone comes out the front to see what you want........ this one person will be your saviour. You take your sunnies off and she sees where your swollen eye is starting to heal. She takes you by the hand, leads you to the door, opens it, let's you walk inside, closes the door, stands in front of you, holds her arms out where you colapse into them crying..........................

When out drinking anywhere there are some simple steps that you can take to try and prevent this from happening

• If drinking out of a bottle, keep your thumb firmly over the top of it.
• NEVER put your drink down, walk away and come back to it. Golden opportunity for someone to put something in it.
• If someone offers to buy you a drink go with them to the bar and take the drink straight away. Same if your at someones house, try and get the drink yourself.
• If you start to experience any symptoms that I described or start to feel different in anyway let someone know. Don't walk away by yourself. That is what they are waiting for.
• Try and use the buddy system when out with your friends. It may not work all the time but by having someone looking out for you it may just prevent an assult occuring.
• If you feel that your drink or a friends drink has been spiked let the bar staff know immediately. Take your friend or yourself to hospital, call an ambulance or police as soon as you can.
• If an assult has occured, report it!!! Even if you can't remember clearly what happened still do. It may feel embarressing but let someone know. No one should be alone when dealing with this. If you don't feel stong enough to talk to someone in person then there are wonderful phone services out there. Lifeline are excellent 131114, Sexual Assult Helpline 1800 01 0120, Violence Against Women 1800 20 0526
• Lastly, be careful while you're out there....... it happened to me and it can happen to you.      
  

thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully it has been of some help to someone out there.

fi xoxoxoxox