Posts by Timothy Martin49

Honestly, I’m about ready to lose my mind here too!😁

amberbear7 said:Hey guys.
I’m sorry if there’s already a thread about this (I posted it in the food section too, hopefully that's okay), but I really need some advice regarding my brother's health, diet, and general mental state. It’s getting pretty scary—he’s become completely obsessed with "clean eating" and overall wellness, and it just keeps spiraling. He’s 25, physically active (works as an HVAC technician), stands about 6'1", but he weighs maybe 125 lbs or even less. Here’s the deal.

It all started a little over two years ago when he got into the whole "healthy living" thing. At first, he cut out all gluten, carbs, and sugar, claiming they made him sleepy even though he doesn't have any actual allergies. Then, after watching a few YouTube documentaries about how hormone-filled and antibiotic-laden factory farming is, he went off milk and every single dairy product—yogurt, cream, cheese, you name it. After that, canned goods, deli meats, anything with sugar, and most meat were gone too.

Right now, his diet consists strictly of fruits and vegetables from local farmers' markets, paired with some specific rice he gets from Microsoft, and every ten days or so, he’ll eat some lamb or beef from a neighbor's farm, maybe fish once a month. He eats nuts and homemade lard for the fat content. He only eats once a day and says he isn't even hungry. Honestly, he looks skeletal, and it scares me. He basically replaces calories by dumping massive amounts of coconut oil—which he insists is the healthiest thing on Earth—onto his rice. He’s using about 50 grams of it a day just to stay functional. And don't even get me started on the circus he pulls at the farmer's market. He sniffs everything to see if it's been sprayed, interrogates people about their soil and seeds, and even inspects the vendors' fingernails because he thinks he can spot chemical residue. He picks fights with everyone—vendors, doctors, anyone who disagrees with him. It’s starting to grate on the rest of us because this obsession is spreading to every part of his life. He eats separately, uses his own dedicated pots, and only uses wooden utensils because he thinks metal is "poison." He spends forever washing produce, sometimes even scrubbing it with baking soda..

He’s constantly taking supplements he orders online. Every day it's drops of iodine to fight radiation, gelatin in water for bone strength, zeolite to "detox" from radiation and chemtrails, clay, clove oil, walnut oil, almond oil, castor oil, hemp oil... you name it. Tons of herbal teas, magnesium, iron... basically, if he doesn't get it from food, he tries to fix it with some miracle supplement. Oh, and he loads his rice with spices—turmeric, pepper, Himalayan salt—anything to prevent cancer. He actually buys these things in bulk—zeolite, iodine, various oils—and resells them to friends and family. Most of them believe him because he acts so incredibly knowledgeable and authoritative. It worries me because he even convinced some friends to start drinking distilled water. Sure, it's not a huge amount, but you can tell how intense he is when he's 100% certain that's the only way to live. He treats it like a side hustle. He even told a girl to eat cayenne pepper instead of lentils because he was convinced it would fix her vision, and he actually yelled at our grandmother when she broke her arm, telling her it was because she drinks milk rather than acknowledging she's 75.

The situation has expanded into everything else. He won't let us wash clothes with detergent; it has to be baking soda and apple cider vinegar. He won't have internet on his phone due to "radiation." He only wears elastic waistbands or sizes too big so nothing constricts him, fearing a stroke or heart attack. He won't wear watches or rings for the same reason and constantly nags us about what we wear. He wears special underwear for "fertility" and washes his hair and skin with all these natural concoctions. There's no TV in his room, and his computer is kept far away from his bed. He won't use headphones because of hearing damage concerns, he hates touching cash (sometimes insists others put money in his wallet for him), and he won't let anyone sit on his bed—only on a separate couch. This stuff just keeps deepening. Lately, I heard he stopped drinking coffee because it's too acidic. He's planning to quit smoking and weed soon (which is the one good thing), and he'll probably ditch the rice in six months for some plant alternative because he thinks rice is "contaminated." He'll likely stop eating the lamb and fish too. The other day, he didn't know what to eat since he ran out of rice, so he ate some calamari Mom bought, but he prepared it with his own oils and spices. I am almost certain he used some kind of enema the next day; I saw him messing around in the bathroom with a device he bought at a pharmacy. I truly think this is a full-blown psychological disorder. He probably felt like he had to "punish" himself for breaking his rules. We all had a huge blowout at home recently because he bought a water distiller and has been drinking nothing but distilled water for three weeks straight, insisting it's the only "real" water. Now he's talking about buying specialized stainless steel cookware. Despite all this, he's still working his HVAC job 7-8 hours a day, Monday through Friday, but he refuses to work Saturdays because he "needs to regenerate." I see how much energy this drains from him. He goes to bed at 9 PM, yet he has zero energy, despite claiming his supplements make up for the "contaminated" food. He's always home on weekends feeling physically ill, even though other workers his age don't have these issues, especially not at 25... he probably has brittle bones.

He’s incredibly arrogant and condescending. He’s losing friends left and right, and he doesn't even have a girlfriend in sight. I suspect he was messing around with someone, but the second he started acting like a total creep and tracking her every move, she bailed. A friend told me about him later—apparently, when they were hanging out at a coffee shop, he didn't care about anything except obsessively checking his tea bags to see if there was any glue or lead residue in them. He wasn't even interested in being affectionate; I guess he was too paranoid about bacteria. And don't even get me started on how much he lectures about diet. He acts like such a know-it-all, judging me whenever I eat something "unhealthy," and he gives me these weird looks whenever I sneeze near him.

Why is he like this? What's the end goal here? Is there any way to help him, or is this just going to spiral forever? I'm honestly worried because it doesn't seem normal for a fit 25-year-old guy—who's 6'1" and only about 130 lbs—to be acting this way, especially since he started drinking distilled water. My biggest concern is: what actually happens if he keeps this up? He's never listened to anyone in his life. We don't have a dad around, and as the oldest brother, he constantly snaps at my mom. You can't say a single word to him without a fight. I'm terrified his bones might become brittle, to the point where a simple fall could wreck him, or that some deficiency-related illness will hit him. So, what are the long-term consequences of all this, and what do you guys suggest? I have to emphasize again: he is insanely arrogant and patronizing. He carries this intense sense of superiority just because he thinks he's the only one eating "correctly." That's really the core of the issue.

If I were you, I’d watch out for paranoia. I’m no expert, but I’ve dealt with this enough within my own family. Using the term "superiority" is actually a perfect way to describe a family member of mine, and it turned out to be nothing more than severe paranoia.