ADHD and Binge Eating ARE Connected

Finally, it all makes sense.

New research suggests that ADHD and binge eating disorder are connected, but I could have told you that.

I’ve been dealing with both for a long time, and it’s gratifying to see that there is most likely a link between the two conditions…and, more importantly, that there are ways to cope.

My history

I feel like my issues with food started in preschool.

Before that, I was a skinny little kid who loved organic chicken and broccoli and avoided sweets (even when offered), but school opened up a whole new world of cake, cookies, candy, and cupcakes on what seemed like a daily basis. At home, we were still eating fairly unprocessed and healthy foods like steamed veggies and locally sourced meat, but I started to crave the sweets I had at school.

That’s when the “sneaking” started. I would stash sugary snacks to eat later and eat them secretly.

In the meantime, I started to exhibit behavioral issues. My teachers complained that I was too hyper, didn’t want to lie down for nap time, and would climb them like a jungle gym. I realize the idea that sugar causes hyperactivity is still far from proven, but that was my experience. I would get hyper and agitated whenever I had sugar, displaying seemingly boundless energy, impulsivity, and mood swings. I was like a different child when I didn't indulge, as my parents and other adults noticed.

When my mom returned to college to earn her degree in psychology, “junk food,” like processed frozen dinners and takeout, became more prevalent in our house. Working full time and going to school right after, she didn’t have the time to cook homemade nutritious meals as she had before.

My inattentiveness and focus problems continued, and at the recommendation of teachers at my school, I was assessed and diagnosed with ADHD at age 10. My “binge eating” continued. I would come home after school before my dad arrived home from work, eat as much as possible, and finish it with several cans of Coke (which he kept for himself — I wasn’t supposed to have soda).

Predictably, by the time I was 11, I was 4'9 and 130 pounds. No one connected my ADHD and my (by now, apparent) binge eating. There wasn’t as much information out there, and I was trying to hide how much I ate when no one was around.

Then came the tipping point. Tired of being chubby and having to shop in the adult's section (at my most rotund, I was an adult medium), I went on an elimination diet after my mom learned about them in her classes. I eliminated dairy, gluten, and sugar and lost 6 pounds in the first week.

Six months later, I was 100 pounds and unrecognizable. It wasn’t just about the weight loss — I also gained confidence and improved my focus. Teachers and coaches commented that I was suddenly a joy to teach; instead of staring off into space, I listened and followed instructions.

I thought my 30-pound weight loss was all to do with eliminating the foods that caused inflammatory reactions, but now, I believe it was about more than that.

I think, more than anything, stopping my binge eating habits back then helped me lose weight. Let’s face it; it’s not as fun to binge on grilled chicken and salad.

This might sound like a duh moment, but I really didn’t think about my binge eating as “disordered” — it was just something I did. All those excess calories contributed to rapid weight gain. Stopping this cycle for long enough to see results allowed me to see that I could indeed stop and eat in a healthy, balanced way. It just required some strategies.

But as I grew up, I forgot about that because I didn’t really address the root issues, including my ADHD. Since then, I have struggled with binging and the associated shame, depression, and weight gain. I’ve weight cycled (gaining and losing weight through binging and extreme dieting) since I was in my mid-late teens.

When I was an athlete training full-time, I could “work off” the extra calories and stay lean. But when I stopped exercising all day, and my eating habits didn’t change, the weight started to pile on.

I don’t know if my binge eating rises to the clinical level of disorder, but it’s been a pervasive part of my life since childhood. It has significantly affected my relationship with food and my body. And it has made me gain weight repeatedly.

The Link

So when National Geographic published an article asking, “Is there a link between ADHD and binge eating?” I felt vindicated.

I’ve long suspected my craving for novelty and inability to know when ‘enough is enough’ comes from my ADHD and fuels my binge-eating tendencies.

This isn’t to say that binge eating is a necessary feature of ADHD, nor that non-ADHD folks don’t also suffer from it. Obviously, you don’t need to have ADHD to binge-eat or overeat — it’s a prevalent problem in all populations — but it seems the two are likely to co-exist. As the article says,

Although there’s still a lot we don’t know about the connection between ADHD and binge eating disorder, there is a high degree of overlap between the two conditions; an estimated 30 percent of patients with binge eating disorder also meet the criteria for ADHD. As ADHD diagnoses have increased in recent years, especially in adult women such as Weber, many are starting to realize some of the ways in which their disorder increases their risk for developing other comorbidities.

It discusses how binge eating disorder is characterized by out-of-control behaviors stemming from impulsivity, a key component of ADHD.

The complex connection between binge eating disorder and ADHD is due to several factors common in patients with ADHD, such as difficulties with emotional regulation, impulsivity, and reward processing.

Emotional regulation is a big one. Those with ADHD often have “bigger” emotions than neurotypical folks. Many use food to soothe themselves, myself included. When I’m stressed, I eat. When I’m sad, I eat. When I’m frustrated, I eat. It’s the one thing that never demands much from me and doesn’t disappoint me…at least until I gain weight and struggle to take it off again.

Due to a difference in thalamus functioning (which signals to the pre-frontal cortex to stop/start behaviors) in ADHD brains, it takes longer for ADHD folks to stop and think before they make decisions. This can lead to impulsive behavior.

There’s also the theory that those with ADHD have a greater drive to seek dopamine because they don’t make enough, but that theory has been challenged in recent years.

I can think of several instances where my desire for MORE (in volume and feeling) compelled me to eat irresponsibly.

Like when I would sit at home while my mom was in school eating entire boxes of cereal, scooping the pieces out with my hands, feeling unable to stop. Or a family-size bag of cheese cubes, at first furtively, a few at a time, then just taking whole handfuls, wrapped in paper towels, and stuffing them down while watching “I Love Lucy.” Gobbling all the chocolates out of the advent calendar, then closing the windows to avoid the shame of being found out. Sneaking 40 pieces of Halloween chocolate candy, then hiding the wrappers between chair cushions.

I even did this in public. I remember an elementary school function where I discretely ate several pieces of angel food cake, sneaking away to a corner and only taking one piece at a time when no one was looking so it was less noticeable. I was sick after that.

This behavior started early (after pre-school) but really intensified in my pre-teens, and my behavior continued into adulthood. It looks a bit different, but it’s still the same behavior.

If given the option for one, I will take three (especially if it’s sweet). I have been known to order two different coffee drinks instead of one, alternating between the two (double the flavor and double the calories). And if there is popcorn, chips, chocolate, cashew nuts, or any combination thereof in the house, I will eat them. Even if I am full. Even if I already had some earlier. Even if I don’t really WANT IT.

It’s just boredom and looking for something exciting, interesting, and rewarding; as the article says, our brains don’t process rewards like non-ADHD folks.

For people with ADHD, “our reward processing center does not process rewards like your average bear,” Lentzsch Parcells says, who was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 17. “We seek reward differently, but we also respond to reward differently.” For people with ADHD, their brains respond less intensely to rewards, which means they need a much larger reward to become motivated, compared to their peers without ADHD. For people with binge-eating disorder, studies suggest that they respond more intensely to the reward of food than others.

This means, basically, that we need more to get the same “reward” as a non-ADHD person. In other words, a neurotypical person might be fine having a small cup of ice cream, but an ADHD person might need a large cup to get the same “reward” out of it. With whipped cream and sprinkles, please.

When the reduced response to rewards in general that is seen in ADHD is combined with a heightened response to food in particular, this can create a situation where food becomes a way to self-medicate. Given that people with ADHD are often under-stimulated, which leads to low motivation, eating can turn into one of the very few activities that feels rewarding.

This also made sense to me. My self-medicating activities are eating and shopping, in that order.

When asked why I binged on sugary or carb-rich foods, I often liked how it “slowed things down.” It made everything feel fuzzy and manageable, even for a moment. I can see how this sounds a lot like what an alcoholic would say when asked why they drink, and as the article says, there is a bigger risk for some people with ADHD to develop addictions.

This is perhaps the biggest reason I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, other than believing it’s a time waster that literally kills you. Even before I knew about my ADHD, I knew I was an “addictive personality,” so I never gave myself that chance. Being so attached to food is bad enough.

Perhaps the most recognizable for me was this passage, based on the doctor's experience being interviewed for the story. The bolding is my own emphasis:

For Weber, the link between the two disorders has been a complex one, one that ties into a number of food-related issues that commonly plague people with ADHD. This includes a pattern of forgetting to eat until she was starving — which would often lead to over-eating — and difficulties with staying organized enough to eat three balanced meals a day. She also tends to swing between two extremes in diet: a highly restrictive diet or out-of-control binge-eating.

I’ve experienced that feeling of time loss where I work intensely on something and forget to eat until I’m super hungry and over-eat.

But I’m more likely not to recognize I’m full and will keep eating until I’m stuffed or sick to my stomach, especially if I’m doing something else, like working on a project or watching television.

But boy, was that last sentence on point. This describes EXACTLY how I’ve tried to control my diet throughout my life, often with disastrous results.

When I was 11/12 and lost all that weight, I think it was partially because I was always distracted by other things, like school and figure skating. The other times I have lost significant weight, it has been when I was more focused on external circumstances rather than dreaming about my next “food break” all the time.

People with ADHD know that their ability to hyper-focus can be either a blessing or a curse. It’s great when you are focused on something “helpful” but not so great if you obsess over something that hurts you.

I have been most able to keep my binge eating under control when I was hyper-focusing on something else.

But when food was the object of my focus (for lack of other things to interest me), I would make eating the highlight of my life.

Not the worst coping mechanism, but not the best either…especially when I was binging on junk food and gaining weight, which made skating more challenging.

So what can be done?

Writing about all this is embarrassing, and I don’t do so to gain sympathy or complain. I don’t expect special treatment or want to use my neurodiversity as a “free pass” to excuse bad behavior. I also don’t let myself off the hook. I acknowledge that I must take responsibility for my actions, even if factors out of my control mitigate them.

I also strongly believe that the more you know about your tendencies, the better you can accept them and make a plan to, if not change them, then at least work with them.

The article discusses possible treatments for ADHD and eating disorders (specifically binge eating disorder) and notes that treating them together is challenging without making the other worse.

There are drugs that can treat both. Personally, I don’t tolerate medications well, so I have avoided them and continue to do so.

As I’ve said, I’m unsure if my binge eating behaviors rise to the disorder level because I can’t afford to get evaluated, nor am I an expert in eating disorders or diets. Everyone’s body and dietary situation/disordered eating is different, and those struggling with eating disorders/disordered eating might be better served by seeing a professional.

However, I’ve had 20 years of reading and absorbing dietary and nutritional information. I have been reading nutrition books since I was a pre-teen and was always fascinated by how diet affected mental health specifically. I also have a Master's degree in Fitness and Wellness Leadership. I was a Crossfit trainer, and am a competitive figure and speed skater in the Master's divisions after skating for 25 years. I’ve learned a lot about diet, mainly to try to keep myself fit and healthy and to try to solve my own disordered eating.

So here are some strategies I am trying to implement to reduce my binge eating and/or overeating, despite my ADHD.

Ask yourself, “Am I hungry or just bored/looking for comfort?”

As noted above and in various other articles, binge eating while ADHD (especially for women) often stems from boredom or the need to self-soothe.

Personally, I notice that whenever I am doing something tedious, I tend to get “hungry.” I want something to do that feels rewarding, so I reach for the snacks.

A way to subvert this is to check in with myself and be honest about the situation. If I don’t have physical hunger pains (and/or it hasn’t been hours since I last ate), I usually want a break from a boring task, or I’m stressed/frustrated/nervous/sad and looking for food to calm myself down.

A useful way to get to the bottom of your motivation is to journal about it or speak into a voice notes app and ask yourself questions as you would if you were giving yourself therapy.

Questions to ask: “Am I actually hungry (physically) and when did I eat last?” “Why do I really want to binge?” “What am I hoping it will solve?” “How am I using it to avoid something else?” “What can I do instead?”

Once I have identified what it is, I solve it. If I’m actually hungry, I eat. If I’m bored, I look at my to-do list and see what I can (and should) do instead of being idle. If I can’t handle that, I will try to find something entertaining- a game on my phone, a book, a television show — and focus on that. And if I’m looking to self-soothe, I look for another way that doesn’t involve food: usually making a cup of herbal tea, taking a short walk/bike ride outside, journaling, or talking to a friend/family member.

Identify your triggers

This ties into the above, but try to consider what emotions/situations make you want to eat. This can include people, places, and times of the day.

For example, I tend to eat late at night when I’m bored and looking for stimulation while simultaneously wanting something to calm me down and lull me toward sleep. I know; it doesn’t make sense to me either. I’ve become used to my brain having conflicting desires.

By recognizing this, I can find strategies to short-circuit this impulse.

Slow down

Mindfulness is considered one of the best ways to bring attention to and curb binge eating. I noticed a while ago that I tend to rush around every aspect of eating. I am in a hurry to get certain foods (whether a meal or a snack) based on certain cravings/impulses, then gobble them down while barely enjoying them.

So lately, I have been giving myself a mental prompt — “slow down.” It only works if I tell myself that directly. I take a deep breath (or three) and then try to eat slowly, chew thoroughly, and pause between each bite.

I have come to prefer this; not only is it better for your digestion, but it also helps you be more aware of how much you are eating and how the food actually tastes. If you enjoy your meal or snack, you are less likely to binge because you are fully experiencing the first serving of food, making it less necessary to have extra helpings.

Fewer distractions

I’m guilty of eating most meals and snacks in front of the television, making it more difficult to track how much I eat and distracting me so I don’t actually notice or enjoy the meal. It’s not just ADHD’ers that do this — it’s acknowledged that eating while binging your favorite show, no matter who you are, can lead to a different type of binging.

This goes back to being present while eating — reduce or eliminate distractions while you eat, and you will eat less.

Don’t eat alone

When I eat alone, I’m more likely to binge; no one’s watching, after all. After a meal, I’m not always aware if I’m hungry or just looking for something more to avoid boredom. So I’ll usually keep snacking, which isn’t great (especially if it’s 2 am).

I found this out when I was 11 as well; being at home without my mom or dad present (mom was in class, dad was sleeping) gave me the opportunity to binge. When my mom started taking me with her to classes (launching my lifelong interest in psychology), the binge eating stopped.

Having someone around — in my case, my mom — during meal and snack times helps me regulate how much I eat.

Make it hard to binge

Don’t hoard food. I’m guilty of this but am trying to break this habit.

I don’t mean you should have an empty fridge and pantry (a scarcity mindset will also make you want to binge due to perceived lack), but stocking up on several boxes/bags of your trigger foods will make indulging easier. Which, if you are trying to break a binge eating pattern, is the last thing you want to do.

In fact, if you are trying to break your fixation on one food or another, like potato chips (again, guilty), it’s best not to even have the offending item in the house. Willpower flags when you are stressed or just craving something salty, and I can attest to the fact that it’s pretty impossible to stick to serving sizes once you open the bag.

Bottom line — if you don’t want to eat it, don’t keep it in the house. Make it difficult for yourself to indulge.

Less sugar and other inflammatory foods

This is the big one for me.

The more sugar and inflammatory foods (dairy, gluten) I consume, the more I want.

Then I start a binge cycle in which I gain weight, feel lousy about myself, and struggle to get the “taste” of real food again.

I try to steer pretty clear of dairy and gluten, but lately, I have been having more and saw the (negative) results. Having sugar often tricks me into binging on gluten and dairy-filled items like baked goods.

So I have been trying to reduce my daily sugar intake, even though it’s natural sugar in the form of maple syrup and honey. As a doctor acquaintance once said, sugar is sugar. Your body doesn’t necessarily know the difference between maple syrup and white sugar; either way, it will respond with raised blood sugar levels. And the more sugar you have, the more you will crave.

Part of my personality and ADHD brain (perhaps the former is influenced by the latter) is all-or-nothing tendencies. I’ve been working on finding more balance, but I know that when it comes to sugar, it’s tough to have “just a little.” So be conscious of your sugar intake and see how it impacts your binge eating.

In conclusion, even if you have binge eating behaviors or a binge eating disorder, you can take steps toward healing your relationship with food. Doing so requires support, courage, determination, and self-awareness. As I continue to address my binge eating issues and get back to a healthier eating pattern, I hope my suggestions will also help you.

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