First we prove that two consecutive terms can never be equal. From an=an+1=c it would follow immediately that an−1=0 and an−2=an−3=c(n>2). Finally we would have to have a0=a1 or a0=0 resp. a1=0, which is excluded. Hence an>0 also holds for all n.
Resolving the condition gives an+2=an+1+an if an+2>an+1, and an+2=an+1−an if an+2<an+1. From an+1<an it therefore follows that an+2>an and an+2>an+1. Hence the subsequence b0,b1,b2,… that arises by omitting all terms that are smaller than both their predecessor and their successor is strictly monotonically increasing.
If we now show that bm+1−bm≥bm−bm−1 holds for all m≥2, then we have for this subsequence an arithmetic sequence with positive common difference as a lower bound, from which the unboundedness follows directly. For this we set bm+1=an+2, where an+2>an+1 is to hold. For an+1>an we have bm=an+1 and bm−1≥an−1 (because either bm−1=an−1 or bm−1=an>an−1 holds). Thus bm+1−bm=an=an+1−an−1≥bm−bm−1. For an+1<an, on the other hand, we have bm=an and bm−1≥an−1 (because either bm−1=an−1 or bm−1=an−2>an−1 holds). So here bm+1−bm=an+1=an−an−1≥bm−bm−1.