ADHD & Eating Disorders: The Overlooked Link
by Neurodivergent-Affirming Eating Disorder Therapist Dr. Marianne Miller, LMFT, offering eating disorder therapy for ADHDers in California, Texas, and Washington D.C.
Why Neurodivergent Brains Need a Different Approach to Recovery
If you’re living with ADHD and struggling with disordered eating, you are not alone—and you’re not doing recovery wrong. You might simply need a framework that actually fits your brain. Research has consistently shown a strong link between ADHD and eating disorders. A 2020 meta-analysis found that individuals with ADHD are 3.82 times more likely to develop an eating disorder compared to those without ADHD (Nazar et al., 2020). And the connection doesn’t stop at binge-type disorders. Emerging research also highlights a significant overlap between ADHD and ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder)—with studies indicating that ADHD traits such as sensory sensitivities, low appetite awareness, and difficulty with food-related routines may increase ARFID risk, especially in children and teens (Kamberelis et al., 2022; Koomar et al., 2021).
Despite these links, ADHD remains widely underdiagnosed in eating disorder treatment settings—especially among women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. And when it is recognized, the support often isn’t designed to address how ADHD actually affects eating.
How ADHD Affects Eating: It’s Not About Willpower
Many people assume disordered eating is driven by emotion or body image alone. But for those with ADHD, food-related struggles often reflect executive dysfunction, sensory processing differences, time blindness, and emotional dysregulation.
Here’s how that can look:
Executive dysfunction makes meal planning, grocery shopping, and food prep feel overwhelming or even impossible. What looks like “inconsistency” is often a brain struggling to move from intention to action.
Time blindness leads to skipping meals because you lose track of time. When hunger finally registers, it often feels urgent and dysregulating—leading to overeating or binge eating.
Interoceptive challenges (common in ADHD) can make hunger and fullness cues hard to recognize or trust. This makes intuitive eating especially difficult.
Sensory sensitivities may cause strong preferences or aversions to certain textures, smells, or temperatures. Many people with ADHD eat the same “safe” foods repeatedly—not from rigidity, but to regulate their nervous systems.
Emotional dysregulation and rejection sensitivity increase shame around food behaviors, especially when they don’t match mainstream recovery expectations.
Why Traditional Eating Disorder Treatment Doesn’t Work for Everyone
Most eating disorder treatments assume a neurotypical framework. You’re expected to follow a rigid meal schedule, tolerate a wide variety of foods, and make consistent progress. But for people with ADHD, those expectations often create more distress—not less.
If you’ve ever struggled with:
Remembering to eat
Following structured meal plans
Managing binge urges after periods of forgetting meals
Shutting down at the thought of cooking
Feeling like your sensory preferences are “wrong”
…it’s not because you’re failing. It’s because your brain and body need different support.
What Neurodivergent-Affirming Recovery Actually Looks Like
A trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming approach to eating disorder recovery honors your needs instead of pathologizing them.
That kind of care might include:
🧠 Scaffolding Instead of Structure
Rather than enforcing a rigid routine, we break tasks into smaller, doable steps. For example, “eat lunch” becomes “open the fridge, grab leftovers, heat them up.”
⏰ External Supports for Time Blindness
Timers, reminders, visual meal plans, or body-doubling can help you stay connected to your eating rhythm—especially when internal cues feel unreliable.
🍽️ Sensory-Attuned Food Choices
Instead of pushing past sensory overwhelm, we work with it. Recovery can begin with your safe foods. We can gently build tolerance at your pace without shame or pressure.
🌱 Emotional Regulation Before Meals
If food feels inaccessible due to emotional flooding or nervous system dysregulation, we focus on co-regulation and sensory calming tools first—so your body can receive nourishment from a place of safety.
📉 Progress Without Perfection
You’re not expected to follow a perfect meal plan or have linear recovery. Flexibility, curiosity, and self-compassion are more sustainable—and more aligned with ADHD brains.
You Are Not Too Much. You Have Your Own Brain Style…and That’s Okay.
If you’ve ever felt like recovery wasn’t made for you, you’re probably right. Most systems weren’t built with neurodivergent folks in mind. But that doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means we need to expand our understanding of what healing can look like.
Whether you’re navigating binge eating, sensory-based restriction, food shame, or inconsistent hunger cues, your body isn’t failing you—it’s adapting. And your recovery deserves to honor the way your brain works, not force it into a mold.
🍽️ Looking for Support That Honors Your Sensory Needs?
If you or someone you love is struggling with ARFID or sensory-based selective eating—especially in the context of ADHD or neurodivergence—you deserve support that actually fits.
My ARFID and Selective Eating Course is self-paced, neurodivergent-affirming, and packed with practical tools for building safety with food without shame or pressure. Whether you're navigating sensory overwhelm, executive functioning challenges, or years of being misunderstood, this course is here to help.
👉 Learn more and enroll today at drmariannemiller.com/arfid
🎧 Want To Learn More About ADHD & Eating Disorders?
Tune into my podcast episode, ADHD & Eating Disorders: The Overlooked Link, where I unpack everything in more detail—plus share real-world tools that help ADHDers nourish themselves without shame.
🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or head to drmariannemiller.com/podcast to stream it directly.
📚 References
Nazar, B. P., et al. (2020). The risk of eating disorders comorbid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders.
Kamberelis, M., et al. (2022). Neurodevelopmental profiles among youth with ARFID: Associations with sensory sensitivity and psychiatric comorbidity. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Koomar, T., et al. (2021). Investigating the link between ADHD and ARFID in youth: Shared traits and distinct challenges. Journal of Psychiatric Research.