[nonsince]

I self-medicated with caffeine for my ADD for years, not realising that my (pretty serious) case of the condition was absolutely not normal, and eventually realising that I needed a diagnosis at the age of 24. Even after that, I still took months to kick the habit of starting to drink caffeine, building up a tolerance, realising that it harms more than it helps overall and kicking it, then having some downer moment (a cold, a workday after little sleep) that made me crack and drink more, starting the cycle again. I’ve now just about kicked the habit, but even though I’ve regularly experimented with and always had access to plenty of harder stuff, caffeine is the only thing I’ve ever been addicted to and likely always will be.

[omnomnomtea]

I'm in the same boat here, was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 28 and realized pretty fast after that I had been self-medicating with massive amounts of coffee. Was up to 8-10 shots espresso a day when I was diagnosed. I was jittery and having problems sleeping, but could only focus as long as I continually ramped up on the caffeine.

Adderall has made a big difference for me- I've gradually cut the caffeine to a 2 tiny coffees a day and my focus is way better than when I was drinking latte after latte. No issues with ramping up either, it's been a couple years and I'm still on basically the same dosage of adderall.