I think everyone in my house may have ADHD

[Modafinil]

I have been diagnosed with ADHD multiple times before. But I am doing fairly well, my interest at the moment is the people I am living with.

I have 2 house mates and one child living here in my home.

They are all females, and much more than house mates we are like family, please note we are absolutely in way "involved" with each other, I am 38, and they are like my daughters to me.

One house mate, we shall "A" is 21, the other that we shall call "B" is 23.

OMG! They are constantly talking and talking running around. They are certainly not in any way quite, they are very noisey people! I mean for one thing they are extremely impulsive, both of them.

They are lovely, caring young women, very beautiful, but they constantly bombard me with this and that. They are completely well lets just say not reliable, and completely disorganized!

They can be difficult, and while they are lovely they have very quick tempers, and very low tolerance to stress. Indeed yes they do constantly fidget etc.

Housemate "A", well she has been diagnosed with ADHD, and was medicated for many years, but when she was 13 a nasty boy (about 15) smashed her in the head with a steel bar and she now has epilepsy, so she can't really go on any stimulant.

The 4 year old is especially interesting. She is ABSOLUTELY lovely, very bright and has an incredible, hilarious personality. But oh my goodness is she active! I mean I am hyper myself but she always completely wears me out, cause she loves spending time with me, she does not EVER sit still, and I mean I love her but she demands absolute constant attention and she constantly bombards me with needs for attention. I always she try to settle her to do something, but never succeed!

Wow she just came running into my room this very instant, she is making all sorts of noises, and swinging/hoping around wanting my attention!

I am not sure if the little girl has ADHD, because I am not sure it is not normal for 4 year olds to be completely hyper and full of energy. But yes she NEVER, EVER sits still. I am watching her now, and she is constantly moving/squirming.

I could not ever bring myself to suggest she gets accessed for ADHD or medicated, unless I can directly see her having SIGNIFICANT problems in her life. She is certainly very happy. She does CONSTANTLY interrupt me no matter what I am doing, but again I am not sure if this is normal for her age.

I am not after getting my housemates treated for ADHD at this stage, I mean they are happy, everything is going well, why mess with the situation?

But I am certain all of the adults here have it.

So does anyone have any experience in such a household? Does anyone have any tips I can use that will help the household?

Does anyone have any tips on how I can keep the little girl occupied and quite sometimes? Sometimes I need a bit of a break. Mum looks after her and provides for her, but is not very good at giving her time and attention, so she keeps coming to me. I don't mind, but sometimes I want to give her something to do some I can have some peace and quiet. The only thing that works is her playing games on my smart phone, but the charger is currently broken. Even movies / tv shows for kids are of limited help, she starts mucking around while watching them, and most the time loses interest quickly.

We are all fine, but in some ways it is crazy here. You really have to see it to understand, we are not really like other households in many ways :) I mean much of the time the two young women are like hyperactive teenagers making a ridiculous amount of noise, laughing, playing around. When they go out, OMG, its like FINALLY the noise stops.

[Modafinil]

No that was not my suggestion allmymarbles.

Thanks for the comments sandman2, will look at the site.

[allmymarbles]

Is there a suggestion here that ADHD can be environmental?

[Sandman2]

    Thank god you have ADHD and hopefully understand what is going on.  Could you imagine what it would be like if you had no clue what it was or what it can do to people?
   this is a really, really good site.  Ya gotta hop around a bit to find what you want.  But it has a ton of ideas that you will find very helpful for EVERY one in the house.  The site is - http://www.additudemag.com/channel/parenting-adhd-children/index.html
   Please feel free to post if you have any other questions.

[Modafinil]

Well I just went in to the mother. Of course she is with the other woman and they are both chatting away constantly, as they always do. In one hand they have their phones, which they are half playing with constantly. They are watching a movie but chatting all the way through it. I observed that both of them were fidgiting/moving around and not sitting still! I usually don't pay much attention to it.

Well I said to the mother, "*** is a lovely girl, but I am wondering, in comparison to other 4 years old, do you think she is a litte...Hyper?"

Response was "Yeah no **** she is, she has ADD."

me: "Oh really, when was she diagnosed?"

"No she hasn't been diagnosed, it is obvious, I have ADHD, and she has it too."

There really is no doubt, if ADHD exists, everyone in this house has it.

[Modafinil]

I wanted to add a little more, who knows somebody might be slightly interested ? :)

I have known these two since they were young teenagers. I was involved at the time helping a family with severe problems and the 5 children (and I am still involved in that situation).

They had very significant emotional/behavioral problems as teenagers. One of them comes from a very significant background of abuse, she has been raped as a child etc, beaten.

They were totally out of control as teenagers, and oh my god was it stressful. One of them was homeless, so I took her in, and the other one was being badly, very badly sexually arrested by her biological uncle that she was living with, and he is a convicted sex offender, though I do not know more than that. I honestly believe he was close to raping her.

So they ended up with me for many years, they have lived on their own at various times, but at this point they are living with me again. Their behavior problems have MASSIVELY improved since they were teenagers. Both of them were insanely wild when it comes to boys as teenagers.

Well that's about it, for the most part, now here we all are in this house :)