Sometimes, when we feel lost or low, we look to social media for help. We want to find other people who share similar experiences and feelings with us. And even though we hope others are genuine and honest, that's not always the case.
A TikTok user who has been posting as @flightles.bird for the past week took us on a roller coaster ride. She introduced herself as the wife of a man whose strange behavior was concerning.
Birdie, as she is now calling herself, posted about her unnamed husband and her concerns. She wanted advice, so TikTokers flocked to the comment section to help. They overwhelmingly agreed he was having a mental health crisis and likely a manic episode and encouraged her to get help and stay safe. What happened in the days following her initial post, however, has people enraged.
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Birdie seemed distraught.
At first, it appeared like a genuine request for help. She spoke to the camera, alone, about what was happening at home. Once quiet and reserved, her husband was suddenly very talkative, not sleeping, and had grandiose ideas about himself and his purpose.
"Something is going on with my husband, and I really need some feedback from unbiased sources … Is there something odd about this, or does it sound like a spiritual awakening?" she wrote in the caption of the first video.
Things turned very quickly.
Birdie followed up her first video with a slideshow of texts allegedly from her husband that followed her narrative of strange behavior. A third video showed her sobbing at the camera, saying her husband's mental health deteriorated rapidly.
He'd apparently called her family and said she was the one in a mental health crisis and convinced them she was the problem. His parents had moved in, and he seemed to have a hold on them as well. She appeared genuinely distraught, terrified, and heartbroken.
The story went on and on.
Birdie explained her husband's back story and claimed he was raised in a cult. She said he refused Western medicine and found a way to get meds to treat depression online. She speculated he was having a manic episode because of the meds, but he refused to see a doctor. The couple has several children, and she said he was beginning to isolate them from her, all while his parents were staying with them.
Video after video, she gave more and more graphic details of her husband's crisis and her desperation. People flocked to her videos, begging her to be safe for herself and her children.
Suddenly, people started to doubt Birdie.
As the saga continued, TikTok users started to break down her story and thought things weren't adding up. Videos began popping up on TikTok of people wondering how someone in crisis would post videos of her face online and tell the story, thinking it wouldn't get back to him. Others questioned the way she was dressed and her appearance, looking coordinated and ready to film rather than distraught and stealing time away.
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Birdie eventually shared a shocking revelation.
In a video posted on August 15, she appears to be reading off a screen and says they never expected their story to "go viral the way it did." She admitted the story was a retelling from a "detailed account" of her husband's mental health crisis in January.
Birdie called herself a theater kid and was able to tell her husband's story through "performance art." Although some people had speculated her story wasn't adding up, the update angered many TikTokers.
People felt duped by Birdie.
The comment section was infuriated. So many people followed along and wanted to help a mother and wife who appeared to be in danger, yet it seems Birdie's story was only partly true.
"As someone who went through this, I literally lost sleep over your situation. I'm so disappointed," someone wrote.
Others thought her story could have been told with a trigger warning in the very beginning stating that it was a retelling.
"You 100% could have shared this experience as you did, in parts, with the accurate emotions that were happening as it unfolded with a simple disclaimer that you were now safe & had processed the event," one person shared.
"I would've watched a retelling. Authenticity is so important," someone else commented.
Others thought she got it totally wrong.
"This was not advocacy. Hope you can realize that, and pivot," one person wrote.
Some thanked her for telling the story but still felt confused.
"I think the story telling was brilliant, & it was probably the best I've seen in a long time. However, I do live through rapid cycling bipolar so now I don't know how I'm feeling," one person commented.
It appears Birdie has deleted her TikTok.
After posting a video stating that she was retelling her husband's mental health crisis story and not sharing it in real time, the backlash was fierce. It appears Birdie thought TikTokers would appreciate her storytelling, but instead they expressed frustration, anger, and feelings of betrayal. She posted an apology on August 16, and almost immediately, her account disappeared from TikTok, but plenty of evidence remains of her 15 minutes of fame.
Although it appears Birdie deleted her account, an archive TikTok popped up August 16 with many of the original videos @flightles.bird.archive.
Birdie initially said she'd planned to continue the saga, but as her popularity cooled off and the backlash mounted, she instead seems to have gone into hiding. It appears people value transparency over an artistic interpretation of a mental health crisis.
