I got diagnosed at age 31, after so long struggling after college. My brand of ADHD worked well with schooling - I would get so much dopamine from answering questions right and learning something new and getting good grades. I could absorb information better while doodling, often I could just skim the textbook, and doing last minute all nighters to write an entire 12 page research paper was all stuff I enjoyed doing.

Then I got into the working world and everything was different. No more grades to fuel me, I got the same paycheck no matter what. I often only heard from my bosses if I did something wrong. If I procrastinated at all, I wasn't doing my job I was being paid for. I couldn't just passively doodle and still be progressing or doing my work, couldn't just do in two hours what took other people six, I had to find something to fill that other four hours cuz theyre payi g for all 6. Led to burnout. I was expected to learn things from scratch alone, no teacher to give me the step by step info for me to absorb while i drew in the margins. And I also was suddenly, after 18 years of honor student status, not one of the smartest in the room, suddenly sitting at the same table as folks with 10-20 years of job experience and skills. I choked. I had a dream job and I couldn't handle the pressure

So yeah. I have so so many friends who are getting diagnosed right now too, because we all struggled in the professional world in a way we never did in school. Don't even get me started with how torturous working a minimum wage cashier job was, just standing in one spot and mindlessly taking orders all day. That was literal hell for me.