Brother may have a mental problem...please assist

[scotchnrocks]

My brother has been acting real crazy for about the past two years. He is almost 30 and owns his own business (barely scraping by) and is always wanting to tell all of our family how he's gonna do so well and make all this money and provide us all of these things. (background: my family is middle middle class and lives in a small town, they don't care about money and if they had $10 million they wouldn't even buy a new car) These stories were only mildly annoying the first few times when I would hear them over the holidays.

I saw him the other day and it's just ridiculuous, he will not shut up about this and that and how he's gonna make all this money while we were at a pub. I tell him that's nice but it really doesn't matter. He starts berating me for being an employee (engineer) and not employer and I'm like ok whatever. He tips the waitress $20 on a $20 tab that included 3 beers and a burger and it was just me and him. I also tipped $5 on my $20 because of OOT instilled tipping habits. Anyway, when we go back to my place (he was gonna stay and leave in the morning) he ends up blowing up at me for some reason I forget and leaves to go back home.

My brother lives in the same town as my parents which is ~200miles away from me. I've been talking with my parents and they are very concerned. Their concern and now me putting together the pieces of the puzzle has me concerned. My parents have constantly told me about how often he would talk about his big ideas and how he had started fighting with my dad a lot(neither drink alcohol). He's always got these big ideas and all this energy about nothing and no one wants to hear about it. He's easily irritated when he feels you aren't listening to him and agreeing with him. I never thought about it much because I only see him about twice a year.

My mother told me tonight that he has cried in front of them two times in the past month and when she has asked what's wrong he says it is because he is so happy. In reality, he has no real reason to be happy enough to cry about it other than the fact he was born in the US, he is living off my parents rent free and has no assets sans some machinerey worth <$10k.

I've convinced my mom to get her and my dad to make a list of these things and to seek a doctor. My mom wants to do this but is worried about it with them being small town and all. I tell them that getting someone who needs help some help is the greater good. I don't know what they are going to do.

I need advice on what may be happening here. I'm starting to get very concerned for my brothers well being and my families reputation due to how he may be interacting with local banks and businessmen.

Thank you.

cliffs: Brother has big ideas that don't make sense and talks about them repeatedly and is easily irritable and overexcited.