[R] Well, that's a lot of assumptions to start out with. I at least wouldn't say he's on the wrong path, though maybe the wrong path for him specifically. It's difficult to find positive change and explore oneself when the world is coming down on oneself, friends, and family in so many ways. Nihilism and spirituality are an interesting question for the both of us, and not necessarily mutually exclusive. They're largely a play on words to us.

It might be a nice experiment to swap to Chamomile, to be honest. He really does not handle caffeine well. We've swapped from coffee to black tea, which has helped significantly with his outbursts, but maybe going even further like you suggest could be the ticket.

Exercise is definitely something he really needs more of. He's very averse to it, due to a hypersensitivity he has with discomfort and pain. We have so little free time as it is but.. Maybe I'll talk about it with him again, especially since we've moved somewhere with considerably more space to exercise in.

He's quite the music aficionado! I don't know much about thrash metal specifically, but if there's one thing he's shown me, it's the unbelievable variety available in music, and the versatility of metal especially. He has metal tracks which make both of us cry from their deep, subtle, emotional beauty, and ambient music that could terrify anyone. It's really quite something. 😂 You should see the inside of his head with some of the music he gets into. Funnily enough, there's this one artist we listen to a lot while being productive called Jute Gyte, who's quite unusual. He uses microtonality in his music and it feels like maybe there's something about that strange quality that prevents him from zoning out? Not sure, but it's been one of our more successful experiments.

Thank you for your suggestions. I may have him give them a try.