The Connections Between ADHD and Eating Disorders
Living with ADHD often means navigating impulsivity, emotional highs and lows, and challenges with self-regulation.
ADHD symptoms are frequently misunderstood or missed altogether, as they often present in subtle ways. When paired with an eating disorder, these complexities can feel overwhelming—but there is hope to recover from your eating disorder while living with ADHD.
Today we’re exploring the connections between ADHD and eating disorders, nuanced ADHD symptoms often missed in women, and how trauma-focused therapy can help address the impact of both ADHD and eating disorder symptoms.
The Overlap Between ADHD and Eating Disorders
Research indicates a notable correlation between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and certain eating disorders:
Binge Eating Disorder (BED): Approximately 30% of individuals with BED also have ADHD.
Bulimia Nervosa: Adolescent girls with ADHD are about 5.6 times more likely to develop bulimia compared to their peers without ADHD.
These statistics highlight the importance of recognizing and addressing the co-occurrence of ADHD and eating disorders to ensure comprehensive and effective treatment.
ADHD traits like impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and executive functioning challenges overlap significantly with eating disorder behaviors.
Here’s how common ADHD traits might influence eating disorders:
Impulsivity: Acting without pausing to reflect can lead to behaviors like binge eating or purging.
Emotional Dysregulation: Overwhelming emotions can drive disordered eating as a coping mechanism.
Hyperfocus: The ADHD tendency to fixate can intensify behaviors like calorie counting, exercise, or restrictive eating.
Difficulty with Interoception: Difficulty sensing body cues like hunger or fullness can lead to erratic eating patterns.
For women, these connections can be even more nuanced due to how ADHD symptoms often present differently.
ADHD Symptoms That Are Often Overlooked and Their Impact On The Development of Eating Disorders
Women with ADHD frequently develop coping mechanisms that mask their symptoms, leading to delayed or missed diagnoses. These traits also shape how eating disorders develop and manifest:
Rejection Sensitivity
Rejection sensitivity involves intense emotional reactions to real or perceived rejection. This sensitivity can fuel feelings of shame, self-criticism, or unworthiness.
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Binge Eating Disorder (BED): Rejection or criticism may trigger binge eating as a way to self-soothe.
Anorexia and Bulimia: Restriction or purging behaviors may arise from a desire to "earn" acceptance or avoid judgment.
Masking and Exhaustion
"Masking" refers to the effort of hiding ADHD symptoms to appear organized and capable. This constant effort often leads to burnout and emotional dysregulation.
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BED: Binge eating may serve as a release for the emotional toll of masking.
Anorexia and Bulimia: Restriction or purging may become additional ways to maintain a facade of control.
Perfectionism
To cope with feelings of inadequacy, many women with ADHD develop perfectionism. This drive for control often spills into eating behaviors.
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Anorexia: Hyperfocus on restrictive eating or exercise routines may reflect an attempt to achieve the "perfect" body.
Bulimia: Perfectionism can drive cycles of bingeing and purging as attempts to "correct" perceived failures.
Daydreaming and Disconnection
A tendency to "zone out" or disconnect from the present moment can interfere with recognizing the body’s needs.
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BED: Mindless bingeing may occur during moments of disconnection.
Anorexia: Disconnection from hunger cues may lead to restriction.
Difficulty with Interoception
Struggling to interpret body signals like hunger, fullness, or thirst is a common ADHD challenge.
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BED: Hunger feel overcoupled with emotional needs leading to using the experience of eating and fullness as a way to cope.
Anorexia: Ignoring hunger cues reinforces restrictive patterns.
Bulimia: Misinterpreting fullness can trigger bingeing or purging behaviors.
How ADHD and eating disorders might overlap
ADHD traits like impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and executive functioning challenges don’t affect everyone in the same way.
The interplay between ADHD and eating disorders often depends on the individual’s environment, trauma history, coping mechanisms, and unique relationship with food and body image.
Let’s explore how ADHD shows up in each eating disorder and why the connection is so significant.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and ADHD
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is one of the most common eating disorders linked to ADHD, with studies suggesting that up to 30% of individuals with BED also have ADHD. This strong connection often stems from the ADHD traits of impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and difficulty with interoception.
Key ADHD Traits That Influence BED:
Impulsivity: The inability to pause and think before acting can lead to impulsive bingeing, especially in response to stress or intense emotions.
Emotional Dysregulation: Many individuals with ADHD struggle to manage feelings of boredom, frustration, or rejection. Binge eating can temporarily soothe these emotions, creating a cycle of dependence.
Limited access to Interoception: Difficulty interpreting hunger and fullness cues can lead to cycles of overeating or bingeing when hunger becomes overwhelming.
How It Might Feel for Someone with ADHD and BED:
Imagine a stressful day where everything feels overwhelming. For someone with ADHD, binge eating might feel like and easy way to find comfort or escape the chaos. Later, shame and self-criticism may take over, reinforcing feelings of failure.Considerations for Treatment:
Medications like Vyvanse for Binge Eating Disorder may reduce impulsive bingeing by targeting ADHD’s underlying impulsivity. However, comprehensive treatment must also address roots of restriction (and if/how the medication is blunting hunger, deepening binge restrict cycles), emotional triggers, body trust, and trauma to provide well rounded therapy for binge eating disorder.
Anorexia and ADHD
On the surface, ADHD and anorexia might seem like opposites. Anorexia is often associated with rigidity, control, and perfectionism, while ADHD thrives in chaos and impulsivity. But for some people, ADHD traits—like hyperfocus, emotional dysregulation, and rejection sensitivity—can drive anorexic behaviors.
Key ADHD Traits That Influence Anorexia:
Hyperfocus: The ADHD brain’s ability to fixate intensely can lead to obsessive calorie counting, exercise routines, or body image concerns.
Perfectionism as a Coping Mechanism: Many women with ADHD develop perfectionistic tendencies to compensate for feelings of inadequacy. This drive for control can fuel restrictive eating patterns.
Disconnection from Body Cues: Forgetfulness or distraction may lead to unintentionally skipping meals, which can spiral into more intentional restriction over time.
How It Might Feel for Someone with ADHD and Anorexia:
For someone with ADHD, restriction may feel like the one area of life where they can exercise control and "succeed." This sense of accomplishment, paired with the cultural normative validation of weight loss, often reinforces restrictive behaviors.
Bulimia and ADHD
Bulimia involves cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors like purging, fasting, or over-exercising. It’s often linked to ADHD traits like impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, and shame sensitivity. Research suggests that individuals with ADHD are at significantly higher risk of developing bulimia, particularly in adolescence.
Key ADHD Traits That Influence Bulimia:
Impulsivity and Emotional Dysregulation: Impulsivity may drive bingeing episodes, while emotional dysregulation amplifies guilt or shame afterward, leading to purging as an attempt to "undo" the perceived damage.
Rejection Sensitivity: A heightened fear of judgment or failure can fuel the shame-purge cycle, making recovery feel especially difficult.
How It Might Feel for Someone with ADHD and Bulimia:
After a binge episode, the inner dialogue may be filled with self-loathing, shame and fear of judgment: "I’ve lost control again." The act of purging might feel like regaining that control, even as it reinforces harmful patterns.
ARFID and ADHD
ARFID is characterized by an extreme aversion to certain foods, often due to sensory sensitivities or fear of choking or vomiting. It’s closely linked to ADHD, as sensory processing differences are common in ADHD brains.
ADHD Traits That Influence ARFID:
Sensory Sensitivities: Foods with specific textures, smells, or appearances may feel overwhelming or trigger and shut down.
Anxiety and Executive Function Challenges: Fear of choking or an inability to plan and prepare balanced meals can limit dietary variety, leading to nutritional deficiencies.
How It Might Feel for Someone with ADHD and ARFID:
A simple act like sitting down to a meal might feel overwhelming for someone with ARFID and ADHD. The texture of certain foods might trigger a strong survival response (fight/flight), while the planning required to try new foods feels insurmountable.
How Trauma Therapy Near Me Can Help With ADHD and Eating Disorders
For many individuals, ADHD and eating disorders don’t exist in isolation—they are often intertwined with a history of trauma.
Trauma can range from childhood experiences of neglect, emotional invalidation, or bullying, to societal pressures and the ongoing stress of feeling "different" due to ADHD.
Trauma-focused therapy offers a holistic approach to healing by addressing the underlying emotional wounds that contribute to both ADHD and disordered eating symptoms.
Addressing Emotional Dysregulation
Trauma-focused therapies like EMDR Therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) or somatic therapy can help process unresolved emotions tied to trauma. This reduces the intensity of emotional dysregulation, a core struggle for those with ADHD and eating disorders.
For ADHD Symptoms: Emotional regulation improves, reducing impulsive behaviors like bingeing or purging.
For Eating Disorders: Therapy can address emotional triggers for disordered eating, such as feelings of shame, rejection, or overwhelm.
Healing the Nervous System
Both trauma and ADHD are linked to nervous system dysregulation. Trauma-focused therapy helps individuals learn to calm their nervous system through grounding techniques, mindfulness, and body-based practices.
For ADHD Symptoms: Reducing nervous system hyperarousal helps with focus, impulsivity, and emotional reactivity.
For Eating Disorders: A regulated nervous system makes it easier to reconnect with hunger and fullness cues and respond to the body’s needs with compassion.
Reconnecting to the Body
Trauma can cause a disconnect from the body, making it difficult to trust or care for it. Trauma-focused therapy gently helps individuals rebuild that trust.
For ADHD Symptoms: Improved interoception allows individuals to better recognize physical needs like rest, movement, or nourishment.
For Eating Disorders: Reconnecting with the body fosters a healthier relationship with food and reduces behaviors like restriction or dissociating.
Processing the Impact of Shame
Shame is a common thread in both ADHD and eating disorders, often stemming from years of feeling “not enough” or “too much.” Trauma-focused therapy directly addresses shame, helping individuals develop self-compassion and resilience.
For ADHD Symptoms: Releasing shame can ease the pressure to mask symptoms or overcompensate through perfectionism.
For Eating Disorders: Reducing shame around eating behaviors or body image opens the door for recovery and self-acceptance.
Building Skills for Long-Term Resilience
Trauma-focused therapy can support you in building the tools to navigate challenges that might come in the future. Tools like emotional regulation techniques, self-advocacy skills, self-acceptance and strategies to manage impulsivity and demand avoidance.
For ADHD Symptoms: Improved executive functioning and emotional resilience support long-term growth and self-management.
For Eating Disorders: A strong foundation of skills helps prevent relapse and develop a sustainable relationship with food and self-care.
Healing from an eating disorder while living with ADHD is a journey—but it’s one you don’t have to navigate alone.
Trauma-focused therapy offers a way to address the emotional roots of your struggles, rebuild trust in your body, and develop skills for a more balanced, peaceful life.
You deserve care, support, and compassion as you work toward healing. Your past doesn’t define you, and your ADHD or eating disorder doesn’t limit your potential.
If you’re looking eating disorder therapy from eating disorder therapists who understand the intersections of ADHD and neurodivergence, we would be honored to support you.
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Reclaim Therapy is a group of trauma therapists who specialize in proving therapy eating disorders in Horsham, PA.
Our team of trauma therapists treat people living with the impact of ADHD and eating disorders, along with the trauma symptoms that may also be impacting the day-to-day. We believe that all people are deserving of healing form disordered eating, trauma and body-shame. If you’re ready to reclaim your life from suffering, schedule your free consultation today!