With sober living, a person can experience support and empowerment from a community that sees and understands their trauma. Date rape drugs may seem like something coming straight from a crime show. But the sad reality is that it has affected many people and continuously haunts thousands of lives up until this day. Transcend Recovery Community is here to enlighten you about date rape drugs, including vital information you may need about these substances.
When an assailant spikes your drink with a roofie, they’re trying to take that freedom from you. The word first appeared on the scene as a street name for a drug called Rohypnol (flunitrazepam). Rohypnol belongs to a class of medications called benzodiazepines. It’s usually prescribed to promote sleep or prep your body for anesthesia, which it does by slowing down the functioning of your central nervous system. If you see someone you don’t know but suspect may have been roofied then notify security or a member of the bar staff.
Common Date Rape Drugs
When going out for the night with friends or by yourself, whether it’s to a party at someone’s home or a public venue, it’s important to keep yourself safe. If you are going out with your friends, make sure to stay with them. Be wary or strangers, especially if they try to bring you free drinks, and never leave with someone you just met.
You experience unconsciousness or a blackout.
When it’s packaged as a blue liquid, it’s often referred to as blue nitro, and it may sometimes be found as a crystal powder. Its street names include fantasy, G, liquid E or X, cherry meth and fishies. Even when people have no recollection of what happened while they were drugged, they may feel a sense of wrongness after they regain consciousness. GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) is what does it feel like when you get roofied a central nervous system depressant that is sometimes prescribed to treat narcolepsy, a sleep disorder. It can produce feelings of confusion, drowsiness, and amnesia or sedate a person in large doses. GHB is also known as liquid X, liquid ecstasy, liquid E, easy lay, Georgia home boy, Gib, Goop, G, G-riffic, organic Quaalude, salty water, soap, scoop, or fantasy.
After seeking help, make an effort to take care of yourself and your mental health.
This amnesia can be partial or total, but it’s a key indicator that someone may have been drugged. When combined with alcohol, it can increase the effects of being drunk. It’s most commonly found as a colorless and odorless liquid that can taste bitter or salty.
Although feeling euphoria is quite common during the initial stages, dealing with brain fog is the most common symptom of being roofied. You suddenly feel that everything is blurry and that you can no longer think or act normally. The symptoms of being roofied can be traumatic, and you may need help to deal with the side effects. Sunlight Recovery’s experts can help you deal with roofied symptoms by providing individual and group therapy sessions. Nobody seeks to get roofied, and when it happens, it’s important to remember that it’s not your fault.
- This can lead to struggling with work and school obligations, an inability to form and maintain positive relationships and using drugs and/or alcohol to self-medicate.
- Since roofies can cause lasting impairment, it is important to seek medical help if you experience any lingering symptoms.
- Roofies also known as the date rape drug, is a dangerous substance that can leave you in a very bad position.
- If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault or rape and need guidance and support, it is important to speak to a rape crisis team in your area.
Symptoms of Being Roofied
- When learning how to recover from being roofied, you may experience unpleasant flashbacks, anxiety attacks and even PTSD.
- They might feel extremely ill and have a hard time remembering what happened to them.
- Other benzodiazepines and date rape drugs can also show up on a blood test panel.
- Stick with friends and those you trust to ensure your safety in party situations.
- This occurs because the substances cause you to lose consciousness or blackout.
These signs may indicate that you or someone around you has been roofied. Because drugs can impact a person’s sense of reality, they also cause confusion and create paranoia as the person’s mind tries to adapt to the circumstances. Blurred sight, tunnel vision, or double vision are all common symptoms of being roofied. Date rape drugs can interrupt the process of forming memories and diminish or eliminate the conscious recollection of events that take place while the drug is in effect.
Then I remember bouncing on and off the walls in the hostel as I struggled to my dorm. My friend told him to back off, and this guy insisted I was drunk and he was ‘helping’ me, but he ran off very quickly. I woke up the next morning feeling very confused and with my friend in the bed with me. I remember looking around the room and seeing my scarf draped over a stranger’s bed in the corner.
This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care. Seek immediate medical help, stay with the person, preserve any potential evidence, and report the incident to law enforcement. “I just want people (especially women) to know that date rape drugs are not some rarity that only come out at frat parties,” she wrote in the thread, which went viral on the platform. “At least 50% of sexual assaults involve alcohol consumption by the perpetrator and/or victim,” Michonski said.
About half of women have or will experience sexual assault that involves some form of physical contact over the course of their lives. As for men, one in three will have experienced a sex crime committed against them. Assailants use them to incapacitate their victims and ensure they can’t make accurate police reports after the assault. In social settings, staying vigilant, keeping your drink within sight, and looking out for your friends are essential habits. Remember, if you ever feel that something is wrong, trust your instincts and seek help immediately. The support of a caring community and professional services can make a big difference in recovery and prevention.
This is why it is critical to consult medical professionals to make sure there is nothing that can cause long-term harm still in the victim’s system. Because roofies can make a person throw up, it can be hard to tell if a person has been roofied or is just recovering from alcohol consumption. However, with roofies, a person might have nausea and vomiting even if they have only had one or two drinks. The word ‘roofied’ is short for ‘roofie,’ the slang term used for the CNS depressant drug Rohypnol.
In addition, some people will interact differently with the drug, so they can experience worse symptoms. Because the effects of roofies are too strong, many people can’t recall what happened except the next day or a few days after the incident. The drug that has been slipped into your drink can cause nausea, especially when you’ve been drinking.
The powerful sedative effects can slow your breathing and heart rate to dangerous levels, which may lead to fatal respiratory depression. Because of these risks, it is critical to always be cautious when consuming beverages in social settings and to seek immediate medical help if you suspect that you have been roofied. On rare occasions, you might notice a slight bitter or salty taste if a substance has been added. However, this isn’t a reliable indicator, so it is best to always be cautious.
Understanding Benzodiazepines (brand name Xanax) and GHB
Timely medical intervention is crucial to mitigate the effects of the drug and ensure the person’s safety. Ketamine is a dissociative drug that can create a sense of detachment from reality, hallucinogenic effects, amnesia, and loss of consciousness, depending on the strength of the dose. Veterinarians use ketamine as an anesthetic, and doctors sometimes prescribe it in supervised settings to address treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine is also called vitamin K, special K, Kit Kat, and cat valium. It can be found in liquid and powder forms that can be mixed into drinks, and it is more easily detectable because it has an extremely bitter taste.
These actions are vital not only for your recovery but also to prevent future incidents. This guide is meant to empower you with the knowledge of what does roofied mean, the risks involved, and the steps you can take to protect yourself and others. If you or someone you know is struggling with these long-term effects, seeking professional help is crucial. Outpatient drug rehab in Atlanta offers specialized support for individuals facing these challenges. Professional therapy, support groups, and mental health programs can play a significant role in your recovery process.
A date rape panel drug test can test for substances like GHB, ketamine, and different benzodiazepines like Rohypnol. Its effects, like sedation and memory loss, usually last 6 to 12 hours. In blood, it can be found for about a day, and in urine for a few days. Once taken, roofie drugs can cause effects that put someone in danger very quickly.
The symptoms of being roofied affect both your body and mind, often worsening as the drug takes effect. Understanding these symptoms can help you identify if you or someone else has been drugged. Several drugs can be used to roofie someone, and they all have similar effects that make a person vulnerable. This depends on the amount of drug that has been slipped into their drink and the amount of alcohol they’ve been taking.