Hey, welcome to the discovery of ADD and what that means to you. From what you’ve written I believe you have been on the same road as many of us, it just took longer to start seeing the signs along the way. IMHO, stop and see the sign, figure it out and try to understand what it means. Each sign that I’ve only ‘discovered’ by looking back started to make sense to me when I started connecting them while watching Totally ADD. The road behind me suddenly lit up the street lights had been turned on at dusk and I could SEE clearly why. Looking forward the lights came on too because I could picture life in a much different way.
Sure things are still tough, and with that I accept that it took me 41 years to get to this point, it will likely take a few more years to integrate ADD into my life rather than just identifying that I can manage it and just trying to get by. I’ve compared not knowing or understanding this like driving in a snow storm, once the pieces come together for you the storm ends. Flurries pop up, but if you keep moving in the right direction they should stop.
You also reminded me of myself when you said “Reminded me that I used that strategy a lot in my later school days – I just wrote down EVERYTHING the professors said, whether I needed to remember it later or not. Because as soon as I stopped writing, phhht…..Brain disengaged.” We made it this far by learning how to cope, how far we’ve made it depends on how well we managed without help. Now imagine your potential with the right help. 
Good luck.
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