A woman on TikTok has gone viral after calling out a Starbucks customer for trauma-dumping on the drive-thru barista.
The video was uploaded by TikTok user Sophia (@sophiaacsta), and it garnered over 1.7 million views by Monday evening.
Sophia’s post was stitched to another viral clip, which she used to illustrate her point. In the initial viral video, uploaded by user Lisa Mia (@chin_up_sunshine_), a woman asks if she can pay for the person behind her at the Starbucks drive-thru. Then she shares the reason why.
@chin_up_sunshine_ Part 8| #payingitfoward #keepinghismemoryalive #homicidevictim #ptsd #traumatok #nationaldayofremembarance #tribute #grief #gonetoosoon #gonetoosoonneverforgotten #creatingmyownjustice #resilent #grieftok #veterantok #lovetok #poetrytok #twloha #recoverytok #healing #healingtiktok #booktok #angel #metaphysical #thrideye #mediumsoftiktok #spirituality #love ♬ The Night We Met – Marianne Beaulieu
“Today is National Day of Remembrance for homicide victims and my husband was brutally killed, so I just wanted to give some love today,” she tells the unseen drive-thru worker.
Sophia stitched Lisa Mia’s video and asked, “Why do y’all randomly trauma dump on people?”
@sophiaacsta It all happened so quickly
♬ original sound – Sophia🦋
The TikToker said she understood that Lisa Mia wanted to remember her husband by paying kindness forward, but, Sophia argued, “That’s literally a random Starbucks barista babes like you don’t know what’s going on in her life.”
She went on to explain that it’s difficult to tell if someone is ready to receive triggering information, and noted that the barista “probably didn’t even have time to register what happened, she just had to accept the information being told.”
Sophia emphasized that she wasn’t saying Lisa Mia did anything wrong, but that “it was a lot of information to take in in a few seconds.” She also noted that Lisa Mia became defensive in the comment section of her own video after other viewers told the bereaved woman that she should have asked the barista if she could share the sensitive information first.
Viewers agreed that there was a time and place for sharing trauma.
A comment with over 14,000 likes read, “She could have just said I wanna pay for the person behind me, and that’s all.”
Another person added, “I worked retail for years and have had the craziest trauma dumps, like I get it, but I’m at work and I don’t know you.”
Someone else noted, “That barista [does] NOT get paid enough for allat.”
One viewer added that this interaction “would probably make me sad for the rest of the shift, you need to choose who to tell this stuff to.”
“Then she has to greet the next customer in like 3 seconds and pretend to be happy, like what,” another responded.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sophia via TikTok direct message.