I'm very happy tonight because I just found out that one of my answers on Yahoo answers was voted as best answer! It was a most alarming story...
My brother, who is just turning 20 years old, very VERY rarely eats any form of healthy food. Especially vegetables or fruit. He drinks orange juice.. That's the closest it gets. His staple foods are ham, cheese & mustard toasties as well as pizza. All starchy foods. He just found out he has kidney stones too. He smokes (both cannabis & tobacco) and drinks too. He isn't overweight (yet). He has also had blood in his urine (he had a biopsy today to see if there's anything untoward going on down there). I don't remember the last time he had an actual good healthy meal - I'm talking maybe before he was 10 years old. I'm worried and he wont listen to me or anyone else obviously. People told me his body would start showing problems by the time he was 30, but he's not quite 20 yet and already has kidney stones.
Quite frankly he makes me SO mad and I am not sure what to do about it. Dad isn't around, and mum just says she can't do anything about it. The more I beg him to eat something healthy, the more he tells me to get lost.
Please someone help! How do I get him to eat HEALTHY or at least get someone to tell him what it will do to his body?
What could drive a perfectly healthy boy to do something like this to himself?
My theory is this:
I'm no expert, but this sounds concerning.
You are a very good sister, and the fact that you are mad is because you love your brother so much. That is very admirable.
I think the fact that he doesn't eat healthy foods has something to do with psyche. Is your brother very stressed about something? Did something happen to trigger him to become very depressed or stressed? Usually, people will become very pained by not having the right foods. Kidney stones alone are extremely painful. That alone will usually be enough to make anyone turn around. But I notice he smokes, and since drugs have painkilling effects, the fact that he is not aware of his pain may be due to drug effects. The fact that he isn't overweight yet might very likely be due to tobacco too. On top of that, smoking will kill the taste buds, therefore, fruits and vegetables will taste bland to him.
He doesn't sound like anyone who will listen easily. But I think one day, he will come to realize that you love him very much.
Before then, you might want to find out what is driving him to do this to himself.
I hope he gets better. He has everything to live for with such a loving sister!
You are a very good sister, and the fact that you are mad is because you love your brother so much. That is very admirable.
I think the fact that he doesn't eat healthy foods has something to do with psyche. Is your brother very stressed about something? Did something happen to trigger him to become very depressed or stressed? Usually, people will become very pained by not having the right foods. Kidney stones alone are extremely painful. That alone will usually be enough to make anyone turn around. But I notice he smokes, and since drugs have painkilling effects, the fact that he is not aware of his pain may be due to drug effects. The fact that he isn't overweight yet might very likely be due to tobacco too. On top of that, smoking will kill the taste buds, therefore, fruits and vegetables will taste bland to him.
He doesn't sound like anyone who will listen easily. But I think one day, he will come to realize that you love him very much.
Before then, you might want to find out what is driving him to do this to himself.
I hope he gets better. He has everything to live for with such a loving sister!
Here is a prayer to him that he will get better soon. As a "partial" vegetarian (because I far prefer fruits and vegetables to meat), I can't imagine eating meat as my staple food. Of course as a Chinese, I had grown up with one staple food. Can anyone guess what it is?
Does anyone else have a theory to offer? What are your thoughts on this interesting but rather concerning story?
Let us all, in the meantime, hope he gets better. Or pray... depending on if you believe in the Great Pumpkin or not.
You are such a dork. ILU.
ReplyDeleteI'm on a horse.
-Genie
I feel very honoured to be mentioned in the awesome blog of the “Life in a Peanut shell”. Nutcracker is a lovely title, it reminds me of ballet, pea nutty ballet =p. It’s almost like I’m being knighted by the Peanut Queen haha xD
ReplyDeleteAs a fellow sister that is going through something very similar, I had to agree to what you said as your answer. I think he does have something that is bothering him; people would care more about health if they had something important in their lives, and I think he’s probably lacking it.
My brother doesn’t exercise at all, he’d have to walk a few flights of stairs and go to class but he wouldn’t do much exercise. Recently he’s been feeling depressed and I’ve been worried. But I’m trying to slowly ease him into a “happier life”. I find his interests and try to get him out on his feet more; for example, I get to escort me to school sometimes, or go out to take pictures with me since he likes photography. We all need someone to tell them they’re important, and we could do it a subtle way. I made sure to tell my brother to sharpen up his photo-taking skills so he’d take good pictures of me when I graduate and I’d try to get a little bit more involved in the everyday life. Little by little, I realized how crazy it is now that I can do so much with him [Back then we would only talk a few times a month]. Maybe she can take up cooking and tell her brother he’s the “taste tester”. People want to feel loved and the fact she cares so much about him is wonderful, the only thing left to do is to tell him. We don’t just hurt ourselves on purpose so there may be a reason. Getting him to open up is hard, but being ready and accepting is always good. For me I was lucky to have my brother come to me for his troubles one day out of the blue and I was ready to listen. So you standing by there is more than enough now, I’m sure on day he’ll turn to you and that’s when you’ll be there.
I’m not very religious but I also pray for the well-being of this sister’s brother, hope he decides to lead a healthy happy life. All hail the Great Pumpkin?
I’m guessing Rice is your staple food? For me I grew up eating rice every day, coming from a fellow Chinese =D [sadly slightly “white washed]. It’s crazy! xD I also used to chow down on meat a lot, but as I grew my taste changed and I prefer eating vegetables now.
Phew long reply! Looking forward to a new post :]!
There is now a new post... and a very long one. (1/3 of the story oh man..)
ReplyDeleteYou're a really good sister too Elithyia Nutcracker =D Thank you so much for praising my blog... it's only just begun xD Fellow Chinese? It's a small world isn't it ^^;