It's really helpful to hear from someone a few years out from a diagnosis. There are so many accounts from people who just started meds and are thrilled with how it's going and the initial excitement of "life didn't have to be this hard". I'm in the "I should really see someone" stage, and part of the reason I'm skeptical of these accounts is that I imagine stimulants would make anyone more focused and productive. To be clear, I'm not doubting that meds are helpful to people suffering from ADHD symptoms! Just holding myself to a high bar; I'm afraid of benefitting from meds I don't really need.
If you're open to sharing, how has your lifestyle changed beyond the first few weeks? Are you still on medication, and how does it help these days? Has your diagnosis been helpful in ways other than meds? Of course, totally understand if you don't want to share.
I'm three months in with medications, and if I have to be completely honest focusing is not the "best part" of them for me.
Along with ADHD I had a pretty strong depression (mainly secondary, as in created by ADHD, but with some elements that might seem primary). Stimulants, on the lower dose manifactured, lifted that from basically the first days. I still have bad days but they are not as crippling as before.
After a month or so I started to realize that I was much more relaxed in general, and that I was "finally" starting to lose track of appointments (like a normal person does, instead of remembering them all like my life depends on that). I think I had a good deal of anxiety that was completely making up for ADHD's forgetfulness. I think it freed a lot of "computational power" that before was used to make me a human agenda.
I also became much less strict with times and habits - it used to be very difficult for me to create and to break habits, while now it feels much more fluid. I used to not be able to go to bed before my last bedtime, which is incredibly frustrating (if my normal bedtime is midnight and I went to bed once at two, the next day I would habe to go to bed at 2).
I'd also advise against taking meds only "as needed", or skipping the weekends, at least for the first months. Even stimulants, which feel like hava an immediate effect, take 2/3 days to be active and from recent studies seem to be fully active only after some weeks. For me skipping a day is terribly limiting and I still feel the effects after a few days.
Now I can procrastinate on twice as many things! (It is important to realize that medication doesn't make you a different person.) I am still on it, and I did ask to slightly increase my dosage after 12 months. I'm often worried that the effects will wane over time, so I work on improving all of those long term tools (sleep, diet, exercise, etc), but the two most important lessons that I've learned are that its okay to be happy that you stopped drowning, and that caffeine is also a drug that is used to treat ADHD and no one feels guilty about using that.
There was an interesting point a while ago when I could focus on more, I could handle more, but I still couldn't focus on or handle everything... I was still just one normal person. But realizing that, making sense of it, and making decisions based on it, were also new things that were easier. As was connecting with the people in my life. Medication wasn't just making me better at work, but at being a human being. Obviously YMMV, but I think that in our society there is too much guilt around certain drugs. If you feel like you need a life vest, maybe try one on. As many people have said, it isn't especially difficult to stop.
I'm 6 months out now from diagnosis/adderall. I've had ADHD (hyperactive/inattentive combo) all my life, but never got formally diagnosed until 6 mo ago. That first month was weird. Started on 10mg IR (instance release) and felt no difference. Upped to 15mg and the effect was mildly noticeable. Went up to 20mg too fast and inadvertently got "high" for a few days, oops. Let me tell you, I totally understand why people become addicted to amphetamines. I felt like a young teenager again, it was glorious. The clarity was unbelievable. At day 4 on 20mg I suddenly started crashing hard when the meds wore off; suicidal thoughts and dark depression. I quickly went back down to 15mg and stayed there for another month. After month 2-3, I went back up to 20mg and that's where I've been since then just fine. The key is to build up slowly.
Each day I can tell when the medication "switches on" and "switches off" because I start getting more focused and I'm actually getting things done. Procrastination is noticeably reduced as well. Unfortunately it seems the body builds a tolerance because as time goes on, the medication is becoming less and less effective. Also if I take any after 3PM, I get insomnia, so this means I only take it the first half of the day.
The IR version lasts about 4-6 hours. I usually take it around 10am so I can focus for the core hours of work. This is kinda crappy because my family doesn't get the benefit unless it's on the weekend when I don't work.
I totally understand that "do I really need these?" question. I was the same way for a looooong time. I viewed ADHD as an advantage for the first 30 years or so of my life. Then things got to a point where I couldn't even do the bare minimum and that's when I got desperate. In my opinion, it was a bit naive to ignore being medicated for so long. I should've started treatment years ago when I first started experiencing difficulties. You may or may not feel the same eventually.
If you're open to sharing, how has your lifestyle changed beyond the first few weeks? Are you still on medication, and how does it help these days? Has your diagnosis been helpful in ways other than meds? Of course, totally understand if you don't want to share.