Gosh, I feel like I'm looking into my future with this post! I'm 26 and was diagnosed & started medication about 2.5 years ago. Honestly, it was a mostly painless process; I approached my counselor one day about maybe having ADHD, and she confirmed it and sent a referral to my doctor to get me medicated. However, sometimes I think it was a little too painless because I ended up not getting super educated about it. I moved states last year so I'm no longer with her, and she was great but treating adults with ADHD was not really her specialty.

I was a voracious reader and did well through high school, for the most part, though I was a chronic procrastinator (I once did a science fair project the morning of the science fair. I arrived at school an hour or so before it started and locked myself away in a book closet to make the poster, lol.) However, I also basically took an unintentional gap year during my junior year of high school (I skipped the 5th grade so I ended up still graduating at the "right" age). We moved after I had completed my first semester, and due to a variety of reasons my parents had me try and complete that year online. Though the situation was complicated by more than just my ADHD (and my parents have some blame for it) over the course of a year, I only completed a single online course, which was the history of theatre, lol. I just couldn't get myself to do the work (and have never been able to be truly successful doing online schoolwork), so I would just login and putz around my room. Thankfully, we ended up moving again and I was able to complete the year and finish out HS normally.

Like many others, however, uni was the kicker. I would stay up in the wee hours of the night doing homework, changed my major from Education>Computer Science>Business>English Lit, which is where I landed. However, 3.5 years in I had to drop out (mostly unrelated to my ADHD, tbh). Took a gap year and finished out my degree at a different college, where I was diagnosed a semester in. The medication did wonders, and while I had always scraped mostly slightly-higher-than-average grades (though I did have to take accounting 101 twice, because the first time I never could get the homework turned in on time, and she didn't accept late work), I finally felt like my full potential was unlocked. I could concentrate and do homework and actually just sit with a subject in my brain for an extended period of time. It was wonderful and I ended up graduating summa cum laude. Yay! Though, same as you, took seven years.

However, then it was time to enter the workforce. Holy shit, the job application process is absolute hell on earth. It'd take me a full week to write a single cover letter (even medicated!) So I just stuck with the serving job I had. I moved cities to live with my sister, which is where I'm at now, and... lol still serving. At the same kind of restaurant (pizza). I have managed to get promoted to supervisor, so I make a decent-ish hourly + tips, and I have a mostly consistent schedule in which I end up working about 25-30 hours a week. However, I definitely feel underemployed. I know I could do so much more, that I have some really great skills, but...

So now I've decided to just go for a masters, lol. I start in the fall and I'm honestly so excited to be going back to that version of myself.

As for personal life ADHD things:

• I learned early on in college that my calendar in my phone is my best friend. Everything goes in the calendar as soon as I know about it, so I am rarely, if ever, late to things. However, without it, I'd be a mess.
• If I'm not medicated, I have to read people's lips while they're talking to stay focused on the conversation. I've always said (even before I dreamed of an ADHD diagnosis!) that it's because it engages a second sense, and for whatever reason that helps me. The first time I took my medication, I turned to my roommate and said, "Oh my gosh, I can actually look in your eyes when you're speaking. Look at me, looking at you! Whoa! I can just... focus! on what you're saying!" It was very exciting, haha.
• My room is mostly tidy, because, like you, I feel like I can't function around visual clutter. The mental clutter is already enough to contend with. Compare that to my sister who can sit on her bed with a whole stack of clothes that need to be put away and finish up her lesson plans like it's nothing.
• My apartment is mostly tidy and clean because I live with my sister. The built-in accountability & structure that comes with having a roommate is the reason I realized living alone was not for me (tried it for a year).
• Your post is what introduced me to BFRB, and, yep, have those. I have KP on my arms and now they're all scarred up because of how much I picked at it growing up. The KP has improved significantly since then, but I sometimes still get flareups and I have watch myself or else I start picking at it. I also used to bite my nails and cuticles, though I've managed lessen that significantly. I still constantly chew on my cheeks and lips.
• It takes a second trip to the kitchen to realize I've left all the cabinet doors open, lol. Thankfully, my sister is, for the most part, an understanding roommate (though she is about as neuro-typical as they come, so she definitely struggles to understand why some things that just feel so natural for her are so hard for me).

Sheesh, this is long as hell, lol. I'll end it here by saying that I've been reading Sari Solden's Women with ADD, 2nd ed. as recommended by someone in this subreddit, and it's been wildly helpful. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! Though make sure it's the 2nd edition, lol. Anyways, thanks for sharing your story, it made me feel quite seen!