Over on TikTok, my FYP was dominated last week by a woman whose screenname was flightlessbird. She was documenting the sudden and scary spiral of her husband in a mental health crisis – where he was turning her family and his against her, and threatening to have her committed. She admitted this week, that the narrative that brought in plenty of attention was a hoax.
I believe her exact explanation was that she’s a theater kid and thought this would bring attention to something that had happened months earlier for her. Only people doubt that it really did happen. And in the process, her hoax re-traumatized people who had experienced abuse, but wanted to try to help her. People who ignored red flags on the off chance that they were wrong.
And that’s really the worst part of it. Her “activism” preyed on people who wanted to help someone at risk. They were worried about the welfare of her children. Ultimately she would have kept continuing this, but people in the viewership were trying to reach out to law enforcement. Which likely forced her to admit that this was all “performance art.” (Note: Flightlessbird never provided the reason why she came forward. This just seemed like the most likely reason)
The sad truth
The sad fact of this, a hoax like this keeps people from wanting to believe they’re witnessing mental health breaks. They’ll stay silent, waiting for someone to reveal it was a lie. With the lack of mental health care, and the lack of normalization for people getting support for mental health care – this is going to lead to people dying or being harmed.
Could Flightlessbird have done this in a more manner that might have helped instead of hurt? By framing it as a storytime, she could have. There are dozens of tiktok accounts that re-enact viewers stories. Whether it’s abusive spouses, abusive family, difficult situations – they make it VERY clear that it’s a re-enactment. Or that it’s a dramatization based on a story given to them.
Instead she chose to present this as current struggles. Which led to people traumatizing themselves in order to offer support. And that truly is the most frustrating part of it. She was harming people who had experienced what she’d allegedly gone through. And she didn’t recognize or care that’s what was going on.
Flightlessbird deleted her account after making a couple apology videos about the hoax. The only good thing is that she hadn’t created a gofundme or collected any money. It’s abhorrent how much damage and harm she caused.
Undoubtedly, blaming things on being a theater kid or something being performance art will be the new “this is gonna ruin the tour” though.
