I only recently got diagnosed with ADHD as well and I 100% feel you.
I got through highschool with a C average because I aced all my tests and did no homework. I flunked out of college because I would frequently get to campus and then be stuck sitting in my vehicle unable to make myself actually get out and go to class. I got diagnosed with depression and spent the next decade cycling through various antidepressants that sometimes seemed to do something but never actually fixed what was wrong with me. I talked to my gen prac about if it could be ADHD and he shot me down immediately. I tried to get in to see a psych but everywhere was so booked up that I couldn’t even get on a waiting list. I went bankrupt, nearly lost my house, and only kept my job through some miracle because some years I missed more work days than I actually worked. I had no social life. I was a hermit and only refrained from serving myself the Kurt Cobain breakfast special because my mom would be sad.
Then one day about 3 months ago my only remaining friend said that their psychiatrist had openings and I got in there. I took one test and he said I definitely have ADHD. I got put on aderall and immediately everything clicked into place. I could think. My brain stopped perpetually screaming incoherently at me. I could actually make myself do things. If there was something I needed to do then I could just go and do it without sitting there locked up for hours telling myself that I need to do it and doing nothing. I could go to work. I could talk to people. I could begin organizing the disaster I had turned my life into, plan a way out, and actually follow through on that plan. I’m applying for new real jobs. I’m grooming myself. I’m paying my bills. I’m ~working on~ socializing. I’m losing weight. I’m eating healthier. I’m getting hobbies as my still limited income allows. I can actually live my life. It is exhilarating and depressing at the same time because like you said, where would I be if I had actually been treated a decade ago? Where would I be if I hadn’t spent the past 10 years sabotaging myself? There’s the exhilaration of finally being free but I’m also mourning the loss of what could have been.
Now I’m in the process of going off the antidepressants I had most recently been on to see how I do just on the adderall and even in the middle of withdrawls I feel far better than I ever had in close to a decade. Yes I was depressed but that depression was because I looked around me and saw people succeeding where for me even the simplest tasks felt like trying to drag myself through a pile of broken glass. As soon as I was able to actually function and meet my own expectations of myself that depression seems to have vanished.
Same here and I love it. It makes intermittent fasting so easy but it also doesn’t stop me from eating. I just don’t get hungry every 30 min anymore. My psych was telling me how loss of appetite could be a symptom that I need to keep an eye on and I was just like “Doc, I’m over 270 lbs. I could do with a reduced appetite.” Sure enough I’ve been losing slightly over 1lb per week with no real effort and I’m still eating at least one full meal per day and usually two.