I don't know how to tell if something is a phase with my SDs or something that requires medical attention. Actually, that's not true. I know for a fact that one of my SDs has ADHD. She is 13 and cannot stop moving, flipping, doing handstands, etc. to save her life. Her sister, who is also 13, is a major hypochondriac. Over the course of the summer, she called at least once a week in a panic over things like "I used finger nail polish remover and then ate a piece of watermelon. Do I need to call poison control?" It was just an endless stream of things that made me think "Seriously??" She is supposedly intelligent, so I just don't understand where this is coming from. The girls are with us every other weekend. One of them always has some sort of issue. Once, one was convinced that she had Lyme disease. She was convinced because she had been out in a wooded area the day before. Not because there was a bite or a tick on her. She was so ill, that she could barely hold her head up. Of course, they never listen to me. I explained to her that a tick would have to be on her for 48 hours to transfer the disease into her bloodstream. If she didn't have a tick on her now, then there is no way that she has Lyme disease. Oh course, she continued to look for the target rash, but suddenly seemed to feel much better. Last weekend, she screamed for my wife because she found a tick while she was in the shower. "I was so scared during the rest of my shower because I could feel it biting me." My wife ran upstairs to remove the tick. There was no tick. It was a mole. Even after my wife told her that it was a mole, she tried to argue that it was a tick.

So, my friends, I would appreciate any advice you may have. Is this really normal? In General, this step-daughter starves herself to stay at a size 000. Her grades are decent and she plays soccer reasonably well. She has lots of friends and "boyfriends." Don't get me started on that!