Thanks for your comments.
A few years ago, in my late 30s, I was diagnosed with bipolar, ADHD, and anxiety disorder (all three have high comorbidity, interestingly). When I got the diagnosis, I was a little bothered. In my family and culture, it's considered a weakness to have mental illness or even talk about it. One is just supposed to 'tough it out'. And, I did tough it out up until then. But, I had finally reached my breaking point and sought out help.
One of the first things the doctor asked me was to describe my family history. My family is largely comprised of highly-intelligent underachievers. Although my parents and siblings are all in the 3 standard deviation IQ club, I was only the first to be able to hold down a regular job and finish college.
When I described my parents' behavior and history to the doctor, he was able to quickly see the patterns and inherited traits. We were all suffering from something similar that had held us back from success (and having general life satisfaction). In fact, after seeing how much easier life has become since I began treatment, I felt terrible for my parents. For most of their life they suffered and ended up self-medicating with much worse things.
I find the backlash against ADHD treatment and all mental illnesses to be extremely classist. There are likely large portions of the population who could have achieved much more happiness and success if they only had had treatment. There seems to be a movement to keep these people untreated for dubious reasons.
And, the downsides of ADHD treatment are quite minor in comparison. In fact, having experimented with different substances over the years, I find Adderall to be almost insignificant. I occasionally miss weeks at a time and feel no noticeable withdrawal. In comparison, alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine are all extremely difficult to quit both physically and psychologically.