"Here Are The Symptoms I Wish I'd Known Beforehand": This 23-Year-Old Had Her Drink Drugged, And She Is Sharing Her Story To Help Others

"We always tell people to protect their drinks, but we never tell them what happens after it happens."

Meet Katherine Abughazaleh. Kat is 23 years old and resides in the Washington, DC, area. Recently Kat, after realizing that her drink had been spiked, shared her story on Twitter in a viral thread that has since been read and shared hundreds of thousands of times.

Kat Abu @abughazalehkat

Someone drugged my drink this weekend. Here’s are some symptoms of a spiked drink that I wish I knew beforehand (and was never told):

08:15 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @abughazalehkat

In her thread, Kat shared some of the symptoms she experienced in the hours after she unknowingly consumed a spiked drink, including "horrible brain fog, difficulty articulating thoughts, and a massive headache."

Kat Abu @abughazalehkat

The next morning was like no hangover I’ve ever experienced. Even similar symptoms were so much worse: - horrible brain fog - difficulty articulating my thoughts - massive headache - extreme sensitivity to light - throat pain (from the vomiting) - muscle weakness - nausea

08:15 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @abughazalehkat

BuzzFeed spoke to Kat to learn more about her experience having her drink spiked and her decision to share this story publicly. "When I woke up, I didn't even really accept that this had happened for two days," she told BuzzFeed. "And that was after talking to a doctor and googling incessantly. If I had known the symptoms, I would have gone to the hospital right when I woke up. We always tell people how to protect your drinks or how people spiked drinks, but we never tell them what happens after it happens, you know?"

Kat Abu @abughazalehkat

I just want people (especially women) to know that date rape drugs are not some rarity that only come out at frat parties. Someone can spike your drink even if you’re careful. And if something seems wrong the next morning, don’t second guess yourself.

08:15 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @abughazalehkat

Kat's thread received thousands of comments from people who had experienced the same thing, or knew someone who had.

Lil @Nancymagill

@abughazalehkat @deray I’m so sorry! The same thing happened to my daughter’s roommate. They got her home safely and quickly realized what happened and took care of her. I was glad they knew what to look for and what to do but WTF why do we have to live like this???

09:12 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @Nancymagill

There were also responses thanking Kat for sharing her experience honestly.

scott bishop @scottbi70294144

@abughazalehkat Thanks for sharing. Trying to educate my girls on this before they get any older.

09:06 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @scottbi70294144

In order to find out more about drink spiking, BuzzFeed spoke to Dr. Ralph Riviello, who is the chair of emergency medicine at UT Health, San Antonio, and a past medical director of several sexual assault treatment programs. BuzzFeed also spoke to Pamela Donovan, author of the book Drink Spiking and Predatory Drugging: A Modern History.

Ralph Riviello / Via UT Health San Antonio, Pamela Donovan / Via Palgrave Macmillan

Riviello and Donovan offered BuzzFeed some general information about drink spiking, which we've outlined below.

1. First and most important: If this happens to you, it is not your fault. In her initial thread, Kat opened up about the fact that one of her first reactions was to blame herself, to feel as if it was her fault "for not being careful." Kat told BuzzFeed, "I mean, I'm a part-time bartender. And I had no idea what actually happens when someone spikes your drink." As Riviello noted, the idea that it was somehow her fault could not be further from the truth. "My big pet peeve around drug-facilitated assault [or drink spiking] is that we don't put enough emphasis on the perpetrator. And we rely on the survivor to protect themselves," he said.

Kat Abu @abughazalehkat

I’m 23. I still bartend part-time. I know my alcohol tolerance. I know how to be safe with my drinks. And yet this still happened and I still feel like it’s my fault for not being careful.

08:15 PM - 16 Aug 2022

Twitter: @abughazalehkat

Riviello told BuzzFeed, "It's not your job to protect yourself from people."

2. Unfortunately, when it comes to identifying the symptoms to be on the lookout for...well, that can be difficult, because it ultimately depends on what sort of drug was used.

Maridav / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Donovan told BuzzFeed that generally, people reporting suspected drugging (regardless of the drug) say they lost consciousness or felt similarly woozy. "Vomiting is not uncommon, probably because balance is affected," she said. "I’d say the differences in feelings between drugs is both unclear and often subjective. The basic lesson here is that when you ingest something you don’t intend to, or more than you intended, you increase danger and feel wrong."

And, said Riviello, "You may feel more hungover than usual. You may wonder why you feel so bad because you only drank maybe a few drinks at most, and you've been able to handle more in the past. A lot of times, the symptoms don't become apparent until after the assault happens. Meaning you wake up in the morning and you feel all of those things I just described. It can sometimes happen very quickly in people too, and that's why they may not recognize it. It may happen so quickly that the recognition comes the next morning or after the attack."

Riviello added that a number of factors — the drug or alcohol used, the size of the person whose drink was spiked, their tolerance for the drug or alcohol, if it's something that they're taking or using already — play into what sort of side effects or symptoms any one person may experience. 

3. Next, said Riviello, a lot of people have a misconception about the types of drugs that are most often used in these situations. In reality, the drug is not always a "roofie," or something like Rohypnol. "People forget that alcohol can be used as a date rape drug, and that it's very common."

Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

"And," continued Riviello, "it's sometimes voluntarily consumed. Other drugs may be voluntarily consumed as well." Donovan also mentioned voluntary consumption of the substance, telling BuzzFeed, "It's important for the public to realize that risk of sexual violence tied to drugs and alcohol [is] mostly tied to voluntary consumption, or ambiguous situations. We need to lessen the stigma around voluntary intoxication, not only because it is the right thing to do for all victims but because it should improve reporting and thus add to knowledge about drugs and alcohol."

In her book, Donovan argues that various “date rape drug” myths interfere with good care for drugging victims and also backhandedly stigmatize people who are voluntarily intoxicated when they are victimized by assault. Donovan said, "Both self-blame and indifference can emerge when someone is assaulted while 'just drunk' — even though this is the ... majority of DFSA (drug-facilitated sexual assault) cases."

Aside from alcohol, it's not always the drugs we have been taught to think of that are involved in drink spiking. According to Riviello, "It's often very common prescription medications, but also common over-the-counter medications that are slipped into people's drinks. And now, with the availability of different packaging and different formulations, some of these don't alter the taste of the drink; they could be dissolved quickly."

Donovan echoed this point, telling BuzzFeed, "Labeling certain drugs 'date rape drugs' is not only inaccurate (any drug can be used this way, including over-the-counter drugs like diphenhydramine, also commonly referred to as Benadryl) but has also been derailing state-level attempts to decriminalize small amounts of drug possession. It has also created misunderstandings when larger drug seizures take place." 

4. Despite a lot of work done by organizations and experts around the world, it's difficult to have a firm sense of how often drink spiking actually happens because of a lack of testing and widely available information.

Nndanko / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Donovan said, "We can’t know how common drink spiking is through testing alone because not enough people get tested. Instead, we know about this low but steady pattern of victimization through self-report surveys regarding sexual assault and more recent ones on suspected drugging without assault. The main limitation of these studies is that most people are not tested, so they more or less have to guess, and live with some uncertainty, about what happened."

She continued, telling BuzzFeed, "Testing needs to stop being a mess, and public health entities need to follow a set of protocols when someone suspects drugging."

5. As for preventing drink spiking, well, that's a tough one too. Riviello said, "I think we're stuck with women protecting themselves as much as possible." But, he added, that should not be mistaken for the idea that women are somehow responsible if their drink is spiked or if they experience drug-assisted sexual assault.

Dmitrymo / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Bystander intervention is a huge factor in all aspects of sexual assault. "If you see something, say something," said Riviello, who also noted that if you suspect you've been a victim, know that there is help available — "whether that's calling law enforcement, calling a crisis center, going to a hospital. You don't always have to report it to the police. But there is help out there." 

Ultimately, the belief that this type of assault is entirely preventable isn't fair to those it happens to. Riviello said, "There are good safety tips. As far as protecting your drink, not accepting things from strangers — those kinds of things are just good advice in general. But I think you could sometimes see the difficulty with it when [certain companies or people] start selling products to specifically put over your drink." The idea of "drink condoms" may be a tough sell, Riviello added, because you have to buy them, you have to carry them, you have to put them over your drink, and you have to be inconvenienced, since, when you want to take a drink, you have to take the condom off. 

Unfortunately, Donovan added, there’s no foolproof way to avoid drink spiking if you are to have a reasonably active social life. It is a small but real danger and has been for more than a century. 

Kat said of women, "We are trained to question ourselves. I did everything I could in my mind to bend all of these pretzels to be like, it was my fault somehow, or I'm just blowing this out of proportion — and, until my doctor was saying that's not normal, without even really considering the possibility of what happened. So women are definitely not trained for this. And we're blamed for so many things that happen to us, even if [we're] not at fault."

She concluded, "Symptoms are just as important as the preventative measures. I mean, I could have died. [Knowing them] can save someone from that or anything else happening ... whether you're looking out for them in someone else or in yourself."

Thank you so much to Katherine Abughazaleh, for letting us help tell her story, and to Dr. Ralph Riviello and Pamela Donovan for providing us with more information about drink spiking.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.