Her Brother Confessed That He's In Love With Her, And She's Disgusted

Most siblings are protected from attraction by the Westermarck Effect, a psychological off-switch that triggers when people are raised together from a young age.

In this case, that switch has been bypassed. Whether it's due to her brother's current mental health struggle or the fact that they're not biologically related, her brother has re-categorized her from sister to an object of desire.

This young woman was adopted from Russia back when she was three-years-old. The family who adopted her had a biological son, a year older than her, whom she ended up extremely close to.

Her parents also gave her an older sister and brother, but since they're over 5 years older than she is, she didn't end up forming the same bond with them.

She and her brother grew up walking home from school together, teasing one another, and getting into harmless trouble. They couldn't be more different, really, and he's irritated her over the years with how stuck up he's been about his grades in school, but she adores her brother.

A year ago, she went off to college and moved to the opposite side of America, while her brother went to California to attend college.

"I was honestly so excited to start this new chapter in my life, as I grew up in a smallish town in Oregon. During my first year, he started to text me more often and call all the time. I was honestly really glad because it was difficult to be away from home," she explained.

"This year, over winter break, is when I noticed him acting differently. He was overly touchy (he literally made me rest my head on his lap while we watched a movie, and when I sat up, he told me he was cold)."

She was wildly uneasy about all of the ways her brother was touching her. He held her hand, put his arm around her shoulders, and did other things.

yavorovich - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

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Now, her brother is popular, hilarious, and charming. He's 6'3, an athlete, and handsome in a conventional sense, so it's not like he's a loser who can't talk to girls. She thinks this is important to note.

Her brother was one of the most popular kids in their high school, which makes what she's about to say even more puzzling and distressing.

"I sent him a photo, he made a weird comment about my beauty making him nervous, and then I asked him why he was acting strange lately," she added.

"He made me call him and confessed he was in love with me. Now he's saying it's due to his mental health, that he's scared he will lose me, etc."

"I am so unfathomably disgusted with him and just want to block him for the time being. The only thing that's making me not is the possibility [that] he might harm himself."

After her brother finished saying he's never felt this way about a girl before and asking her to keep his secret, she thanked him for being honest, but said they will never be romantic.

She made it clear to her brother that she's only ever interested in being his sibling. She threatened to cut contact with him if he couldn't accept that, and he started crying while asking her not to do that.

It was jarring to hear her brother cry over the phone, since the last time she heard him cry was back when they were little kids. He has since bombarded her with texts, even though she's asked for space.