There are strong links between ADHD and Eating Disorders, (shockingly, studies have shown that girls with ADHD are almost four times more likely to have an eating disorder!), I’m going to focus on Binge Eating Disorder as that’s what I know about personally. As with all my posts, I’m no expert but this is my personal experience and what I have learned from reading a lot. I made a TikTok about this and it had an overwhelming response. Until I was diagnosed and started researching myself, I had no idea that there was a reason for my binge eating and that it was linked to my ADHD diagnosis. I was told when I was at school that I had binge eating disorder or BED but was never told too much more about it or had it followed up. It now all makes sense and I’ll try and outline a few of the reasons here.

Sugar gives you the dopamine boost you are searching for subconsciously. Thrill seeking is something that many undiagnosed people ADHD do to try and get their dopamine hits. Brains of people with ADHD produce less dopamine, the happy hormone, and it causes so many negative symptoms, in order to balance that out, people with ADHD will often misuse drugs or alcohol, use food as ‘medication’, take risks in their driving, start arguments, book holidays, shop excessively, start new hobbies, try extreme sports and crave sweet foods. A lot of the symptoms got much worse for people in lockdown as lots of their ‘coping methods’ were removed, leaving a lot of people with just food, I gained a lot of weight in the first lockdown.

Going undiagnosed can cause extreme anxiety. I used to anxious eat and can clearly see patterns through my life where stressful times would cause me to gain a lot of weight. I would then work very hard to lose it until the next stressful time and I yoyo’d like this for years.

Poor impulse control. Having poor impulse control around food was one of my big problems. If it was nice, I couldn’t stop eating it, I would eat until my stomach actually physically hurt and there were times when I was younger when I would eat until I was sick.

Low self esteem. Going undiagnosed for a long time erodes your self esteem, your self worth, your confidence and your ability to care enough for yourself to want to look after yourself. I used to eat because I was miserable, gain weight, feel miserable and so eat more. Then I would feel real self loathing for my lack of self control, my inability to look like my friends and the cycle would just perpetuate.

Boredom. ADHD brains don’t cope well with boredom. Food gives stimulation, it can also provide sensory satisfaction. Some people will crave crunchy or soft foods. It can also be boring to cook, I read that food tastes better when someone else makes it as you lose interest during the cooking process and I can really relate to that. This is why you can spend ages cooking and then not feel hungry by the time it is ready. It’s also why you can rely on junk food, quick and easy snacks and takeaways.

Overwhelm about cooking proper meals. This is something I still struggle with now. Thinking about what to cook. And I find the process of food shopping stressful. I can’t fathom meal planning, it really stresses me out. I’m bright, I understand the concept but poor executive dysfunction means that I struggle to put it all together, making sure you have the right ingredients, on the right day. And if something happened to throw out my plan, I was lost!

There is a lot more to it, and having ADHD doesn’t mean you will have Binge Eating Disorder and vice versa but for me they are very connected. Now that I am being treated for my ADHD it has also tackled my binge eating and I can only now fully realise the scale of the problem I had.