About Us
Welcome to Grandma Has ADHD, a platform dedicated to exploring, understanding, and supporting seniors living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
About Grandma Has ADHD
At Grandma Has ADHD, we aim to shed light on the often overlooked reality of ADHD in older adults. Our mission is to provide valuable resources, share personal stories, and offer expert insights to help seniors, their families, and healthcare professionals better understand and manage ADHD in later life.
Until recently, ADHD was thought to be a condition that only affected children, particularly boys, and would be outgrown. We now know that ADHD persists into adulthood and can significantly impact seniors’ lives. Many older adults, especially women, may have gone undiagnosed for decades, struggling with symptoms they didn’t understand and taking a toll on self esteem and mental health.
ADHD in seniors can manifest in unique ways, often overlapping with normal signs of aging. This can lead to misdiagnosis, inadequate treatment, and unnecessary struggles. Some common symptoms in older adults with ADHD include:
- Forgetfulness
- Difficulty with short term memory or learning new things
- Trouble with interpersonal relationships
- Financial management challenges
- Excessive clutter and struggles with home organization
“Learning about ADHD at any age is like discovering a “playbook” to your life – you begin to understand and appreciate yourself in a whole new way. My relationship with my own mother is better because I’ve finally stopped expecting her to be someone different than who she is and I know longer “judge”.
Jami Shapiro
Jami Shapiro – Jami is a Certified Senior Move Manager (NASMM), a Level Two Specialist in ADHD (ICD), and is an ADDCA Trained ADHD Coach. Founder of Silver Linings Transitions and Creator of “Grandma Has ADHD”
Meet the Cast
Jami Shapiro, Host
Jami discovered her own ADHD after her child’s diagnosis, sparking a journey of self-discovery and understanding. As the Founder of Silver Linings Transitions, a senior and specialty move management and home organization company, she began noticing ADHD traits in many of her clients – especially those who were more “clutter challenged”. She found many of these seniors shared traits similar to her own and those of her mother who never considered the likelihood of ADHD since it was a diagnosis thought to only affect boys and was believed to be outgrown. A larger and scarier challenge is the lack of education among healthcare professionals causing seniors facing ADHD related challenges to be misdiagnosed or overlooked.
This gap in ADHD awareness for older adults like her mother, was the impetus behind the “Grandma Has ADHD” podcast. Here, she interviews experts and individuals affected by ADHD, blending professional insights with personal experiences and client stories. Her goal is to educate and entertain, helping seniors experience those “lightbulb moments” when they connect the dots of their lifelong experiences leaving them with strategies and tools to make “the rest of their lives, the BEST of their lives.”
Jami is a Certified Senior Move Manager (NASMM), a Level Two Specialist in ADHD (ICD), and a licensed ICF coach currently pursuing ADHD Coaching Certification with ADDCA.
Guest Co-Host
Lynn Layfield, Co-Host and Co-Founder
Lynn is one of those “moms in the middle” who spent decades white-knuckling through life with undiagnosed ADHD. It wasn’t until she became a mom that Lynn saw her two boys struggling with the same familiar hurdles: missing homework, anxiety, and the constant loss of expensive items (uniforms and glasses). Hearing herself repeat her own mother’s phrase—“You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached to your body”—was the ultimate OMG moment. While her sons hyperfocus on Hotel Management and Jiu-Jitsu, Lynn channels her own intense focus into technology and software.
Her journey reflects the experience of countless women who grew up in the 70s when ADHD was rarely considered for girls. Instead of receiving the right support, she was labeled as having “too much energy” and “too much anxiety,” leading to a childhood spent in psychologists’ offices from age five to thirteen. Now, Lynn is turning those years of being misunderstood into a mission of “getting better together.” As the Co-founder of The Sparkler Society, she is working with Jami to build a community for high-energy women who refuse to believe they are “too much” while navigating the “middle” phase of life—balancing young adult children and aging parents.
As a co-host of Grandma Has ADHD, Lynn brings funny, unfiltered stories of being “over the top” at all the wrong times. Nothing is too personal to share, especially the creative chaos of managing an ADHD household and marriage to her ADHD husband of 28 years. A serial entrepreneur who has started four businesses (more fails than wins) and an amateur improv/stand-up performer, Lynn is dedicated to helping listeners replace self-doubt with self-compassion and a much-needed laugh.