Spiked? Or simply drunk?
What do the words say?
I have been closely reading many stories sharing experiences of the spiking phenomenon. They fascinate me because most of them contain the type of deceptive language that I write about here every week.
I summed up some thoughts about this last year.
Having done more research into spiking, I’ve learned that there are three main reasons why people tell stories about when they think they were spiked
They were a victim of spiking
They believe spiking must be the explanation as to why they acted as they did
They took excessive levels of alcohol or drugs but want to hide that by saying they were spiked
I’ve found an account from someone who says they were a victim of needle spiking and, for me, it falls squarely into one of these categories.
Word analysis
The night started out at the Student Union bar, but it was boring so we decided to go to a nightclub.
Straight away, this person is into story-telling mode. They start their account from long before they say the spiking incident took place. This indicates one of two things. Either this is where the story really starts or they are creating a narrative rather than giving a factual retelling of events.
Given what comes later, I believe this is where the story starts, as this is where the alcohol drinking started.
“But it was boring so we decided to go to a nightclub” is creating a justification for going to a nightclub. Why do they feel there is a need for that justification? It’s fine to go to a nightclub.
We’ve been there a few times so I felt perfectly comfortable walking in with my friends, including my boyfriend, Aedan, 20, who’s also a student.
It was just a regular night out, with the six of us. Making up for those long pandemic months of staying in.
This doesn’t make sense. It was either a regular night out, or it was a night out making up for the months of staying in. It can’t be both. You could say, “it felt good to be having a normal night out after months of staying in”.
The words point to the aim of the night being a celebration of being able to go out again.
In the club
I’d had a couple of vodkas at the Union bar, but I wasn’t remotely tipsy entering the club. It was moderately busy and I didn’t notice anyone looking particularly shady as we went to order at the bar.
Couple formally means two, but it also used to denote “not many”, usually by way of minimising an issue, as in “it will take a couple of hours” or “it cost me a couple of pounds”. So, although they say they had a couple of vodkas, it may be more than that.
Why do they feel the need to tell us, “I wasn’t remotely tipsy entering the club”? Being tipsy must be on their mind for them to tell us they weren’t. If I were to tell you that I’d walked into a coffee shop this morning and a supermarket this afternoon, it would not cross my mind to tell you my state of sobriety.
I’ve seen no evidence that people who practise spiking look shady, so I’ve no idea why it is mentioned. What I do know is that there is another reference to buying alcohol with “we went to order at the bar”. If we haven’t seen already, this is a night and story centred around alcohol. It is the repeated theme of the story.
We had a couple of drinks and danced for a bit. Apparently I went to the toilet with my friend, Elle, and she says, while we were in there I threw my vodka and lemonade over the cubicle. Those drinks are £6 each – I would not be wasting them in normal circumstances!
Another paragraph and two more mentions of drinks. They say that throwing a vodka and lemonade was “wasting” drinks. This suggests a dependency on the drink, not in as an alcoholic would but someone with a need or desire to get the benefit of the alcohol in the drink.
We have another “couple of drinks” mentioned here. That takes the confirmed total to 4 plus the one in the toilet which wasn’t fully drink, so four and a bit.
If the word “couple” meant more than two and the drinks ordered at the bar (when they went into the club) are separate from the couple of drinks that went with dancing we could be looking at 7 to 8 drinks in total.
They say “apparently” they went to the toilet and needed to be told by a friend that they threw a drink over the cubicle. They are explicitly saying they don’t remember this part of events, which is surprising given the next line.
I have almost no recollection of the rest of the evening. The next thing I remember is sitting in my bed at my dad’s house.
This doesn’t flow. They say they can’t remember the toilet incident and then can’t remember “the rest of the evening” meaning everything past the toilet incident. Why does “I have no recollection of the rest of the evening” come after the also unremembered toilet incident?
They also say, “I have ALMOST no recollection of the rest of the evening”. “Almost no recollection” means they do remember some of it.
I see this a lot in deceptive spiking stories. The person wants to convey that they can’t remember anything at all after a certain point, but they don’t say that in words because it isn’t true.
Until now, the retelling has pointed to a celebratory night out that has involved a certain amount of alcohol consumption. I can see alcohol mentions at every point in the story and attempts to minimise the amount of alcohol consumed.
Not remembering some of what happened is also consistent with alcohol consumption.
Turning point
At this point, the story takes a turn. From being a fairly congruent retelling of events, things become much more disjointed.
I was totally confused and when I inspected myself I found a clear injection mark on my upper left thigh.
Later it would turn slightly yellow as a bruise does. I’ve had plenty of injections recently so I recognised it instantly as not just being a scratch - someone had roughly spiked something inside me.
They were “totally confused” not simply confused.
Although they say it was “a clear injection mark”, they also say they recognised it was “not just being a scratch”. Injection marks don’t look like scratches at all, so why is the possibility of it being a scratch brought in? This also works with the phrase “it would turn slightly yellow as a bruise does”. They tell us it was like a bruise and a scratch but can’t specify why it was a clear injection mark.
I’m guessing their reference to having had “plenty of injections recently” is medical injections rather than anything else. Therefore, the injections they had were done professionally. It’s not clear from what they say why having had professional injections would make them recognise that someone had roughly spiked them.
My thigh length dress had no tears so they must have just pulled it up higher without me noticing.
There is no logic here. If they had said there was no hole in the dress, it may have made sense. Putting a needle through a dress would not tear it.
And this will become a pivotal point later. How can someone get close enough to interfere with clothing, pull up a dress to expose some flesh, and insert a needle without the victim noticing?
For this to stand up, the victim must have either been asleep, unconscious or had their senses severely dulled. Alcohol dulls the senses or causes drowsiness if taken to excess.
Remember the club was “moderately” busy, so it seems likely that anyone, especially a stranger, coming in such close contact would be noticed by the victim and possibly their friends.
I felt so invaded and shocked. I’ve had to piece together what happened from other people who'd been at the venue. My friends got me out of the club because I clearly wasn’t well, I was falling around all over the place and then I collapsed outside of the club.
They don’t tell us what they pieced together. They do mention a scenario that happened when they got out of the club. Everything they mention in this scenario is consistent with excess alcohol intake. Falling around and collapsing would also cause bruising and scratching.
I was taken to A&E with Aedan, and was put in a wheelchair as I couldn’t use my legs. I was also slumped over and I couldn’t communicate or hold my head up.
But despite my condition, the hospital just told Aedan I’d ‘have to come back when sober’. They simply assumed I was drunk. Aedan took me to my dad’s house ten minutes away, which is where I woke up.
Once again, they have chosen not to express why they think they should have been treated as anything but drunk. They mention their “condition” but everything expressed is consistent with excess alcohol intake.
Now, Aeden is wracked with guilt that he couldn’t stop this happening to me. He's furious this happened and he couldn't protect me. But I'm just grateful he was there to look after me and get me to safety.
It took me a few days to get my head around what had happened, but I filed a police report and I gave them a urine sample.
I also underwent blood tests at a health centre which specialises in these kinds of crimes, which I'm now sure was sexually motivated. I haven’t had the results back yet and all the doctor said was ‘there’s not much we can do.’
There is another claim with no substance to back it up in this “I’m now sure was sexually motivated”.
There is also another break with logic. Is she claiming that she want to a health centre which specialises in spiking and the doctors said, “there’s not much we can do” without them knowing the results of the blood tests? That doesn’t sound like something a trained professional would do.
The nightclub is taking no responsibility for what happened; I think they need to be more careful with security on the door. I don’t know how long these drugs stay in your system so I don't know whether the tests will prove anything - and I don’t expect the police will ever find the culprit.
We have confirmation here that the blood test results haven’t come back. In the past few paragraphs, they seem resigned to the fact that nothing will happen. The doctors won’t do anything, the tests won’t prove anything, and the police won’t find the culprit. Is this because they are pessimistic, or because they know (or suspect) nothing happened and there is no culprit?
Back to life
I decided to try and go out last week to get back to ‘normal’ but just going into a very small club made my whole body shake, I felt like I was gonna throw up and cry and have a panic attack. I can’t imagine ever feeling comfortable drinking alcohol in public again.
A small point first, if you “felt” like you were going to throw up and cry and have a panic attack, you are saying none of those things happened. Only that you “felt” they were going to happen.
They then provide a line that reveals so much, “I can’t imagine ever feeling comfortable drinking alcohol in public again”.
There are two ways this makes sense in the context of this story:
If they believed they were spiked, then they would be wary of drinking so much that they could be spiked without them noticing. This would back up everything I’ve noted about how central alcohol was to the story of the night.
Or, they know they drank so much on the night, that it is the alcohol which caused the conditions they suffered. Lack of memory, unable to stand, bruising and scratches from falling.
If you think that judgement is harsh, it’s validated in the final sentence.
I just want more women to know that this happens and to warn them to be aware of their surroundings and not drink too much, so you have your wits about you.
There is a want to let women know that “this” happens, but what is “this”? It’s telling that the warning is “be aware… and not drink too much”. Here they are expressly putting the blame on the amount they’ve drunk.
They place no blame on the culprit that must exist if they were spiked. To inject drugs into somebody against their will is a vile and criminal thing to do. No amount of alcohol consumption by the victim excuses those actions. So, why is this story missing blame on the culprit or anger towards what has happened.
What’s missing?
Once I look at someone’s words, I like to look for what is missing. What haven’t they said that I would expect them to say?
I don’t see any specific symptom of the spiking, I don’t see any reason they believe they were spiked beyond the “clear injection mark”.
They use the word “spiked” once, “drugs” once and never say needle. This is a supposedly a story about being spiked but mentions spiking so little. I would expect as clear and straightforward explanation of when they believe it occurred or when they felt something wasn’t right, and the reasons for this.
This person is a lucid storyteller, I’m clear on where they went, how much they drank and what happened afterwards. So not to be clear on why they thought they were spiked stands out.
As mentioned before, there is no sign of a perpetrator.
Here’s an account of needle spiking from someone else, which has a very different feel to it.
My friends were really shocked, but they thought I was just really drunk at that point
I hadn’t drunk much at all, nowhere near enough to get me anywhere near that state. And the fact that I don’t remember anything is really scary. I was completely out of it.
The police have reviewed CCTV from the club and they say a man was seen lingering around me, but I don’t remember a thing.
This account goes on to mention medical confirmation of an injection and worries about the ramification of this happening. Elements that are all missing from the story we’ve been looking at.
Conclusion
There is no evidence brought to this story to show a spiking took place, and very little to show why they think a spiking took place. There is plenty of evidence that alcohol was at the centre of what happened.
The lack of straightforwardnessb and the lack of optimism that anything will happen about it suggests they know the chances are high that what happened is purely down to drinking too much.
I’ve shied away from posting an analysis of a spiking story, as I want to avoid questioning in public someone who has come forward to tell a story. However, there is a fear of spiking among young women, and it’s being driven by stories like this where a claim of spiking is made with no evidence more than factual incidents of spiking. They may say they would like to warn people, but the effect is they are scaring people and without reason.
Some people will be sharing these flimsy stories to excuse their behaviour or to gain attention or pity. Others will be sure they have been spiked based on a lack of understanding as to what spiking involves.
It is irresponsible to scare an already vulnerable group of people due to ignorance or selfishness.
Is this account deceptive? I don’t believe so, it’s a believable telling of events that involve drinking too much alcohol. The only time deceptive language comes in is around the amount of drink had and finding the needle mark.
Ultimately, I don’t believe this is a story involving spiking, and I’m inclined to think the author feels the same way.
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I feel that you have done such a fair assessment. Something happened that night but I agree that it was unlikely it was needle spiking. Well done