How a TV Show Pushed Me to Confront My Drink-Spiking

A major television drama helped one woman face a traumatic personal experience. Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault. The show "I May Destroy You" first aired in 2020. Its creator, Michaela Coel, based the story on her own sexual assault. The main character, Arabella, learns she was drugged and raped on a night out. At the time, the show felt familiar but not directly personal to me. That changed three months later. After a second date at a man's apartment, I experienced a large memory gap. I could not make sense of it. The next morning, I was confused. I asked the man what happened. He said we had sex. He seemed offended when I told him I could not remember it. I later met my sister. I told her I blacked out after only three drinks. She suggested I had been drugged. I dismissed the idea at first. I thought spiking was something done by strangers in clubs, not by someone I liked in a nice home. Then I remembered a detail. He had offered me a half-empty bottle of wine from a previous dinner. He did not drink any of it himself. Rewatching "I May Destroy You" after my experience was different. It pushed me to stop ignoring the event. The show helped me move from confusion to action.