Binge Eating & ADHD: What You Need to Know
Eating is extremely personal. What you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat can depend on a ton of factors at any given time:
Did you pack your lunch?
Is there a break in your work schedule for a snack?
Is it a holiday?
Are you experiencing PMS?
Yes, food is fuel. But food is how we connect with friends and family, celebrate traditions and memories, and process emotions.
See. It gets…complicated.
But sometimes, food isn’t just complicated. Sometimes there’s something deeper going on.
In this post, I’m breaking down:
What binge eating is (and isn’t)
When binge eating becomes binge eating disorder
The overlap between binge eating disorder and ADHD
What actually helps ADHD binge eating
I’ll pull from research, my work as a therapist, and my own lived experience as someone with ADHD in recovery from BED.
What Is Binge Eating?
Simply put, binge eating means eating a lot of food in a short period of time.
Two things must be present for it to count as a binge eating episode (the fancy-pants-clinical term):
Eating a large amount of food in a specific period of time. (Compared to others in a similar situation)
Loss of control: Feeling unable to stop eating, or control what, how much, or fast you’re eating.
Binge Eating vs. Just Eating
Let’s play “is it a binge, or just normal eating?”
Scenario #1: The All Day Grazer
You’ve snacked on food all. Day. Long. Little bits cheese, a piece of fruit, half a bagel, a danish, some hummus and chips, a handful of nuts. Snacking all day.
Lots of food? Check.
In a time period? Nope. All day is not the same as ‘2 hours’ or ‘30 minutes.’
Result: Not a binge eating episode.
Scenario #2: The Birthday Bonanza
You go out for a birthday dinner at your favorite restaurant. You hoover up the bread basket, an appetizer, a plate of pasta, and the cheesecake. Everyone at the table is competing to describe how unbearably full they are.
Lots of food? Check
Specific time frame? Check
More than others in the same situation? Nope. (Everyone is stuffed.)
Result: not a binge eating episode (think: Thanksgiving).
Scenario #3: Secret Stress Muffins
You’re stressed as hell at work. You find muffins in the otherwise empty kitchen. You scarf them down. In the middle of muffin number three, Todd from accounting walks in for more coffee. You try to act cool, scurry back to your desk, feeling a pit of guilt in your stomach.
Large amount of food? Check
Short time period? Check
More than others? Check
Loss of control? Check
And I’ll tell you why - the secrecy and the guilt. You ddn’t stop when you were done or full - you only stopped because you were interrupted.
Result: this is a binge eating episode.
Signs of a Binge Eating Episode:
Eating faster than normal
Eating until you’re overly full
Eating when you’re not hungry
Eating in secret from embarrassment or shame
Feelings of disgust, guilt, or depression afterwards
Sometimes dissociation or numbness while eating
What Does Binge Eating Look Like in Real Life?
I want to give some more examples of what a binge eating episode can look like so you can figure out if the midnight date with your ice cream container is just human, or needs more investigation.
Planned Binges: After a horrible meeting with your boss, you brain keeps thinking about the brownies at home. You leave work, wait for everyone to go to bed, and then finish the brownies while a small voice says “please stop.”
Spontaneous Binges: After a big fight with your roommate, she leaves the apartment to cool off. You find yourself in the pantry, elbow deep in a box of Lucky Charms until all that’s left is dust.
Emotional binges: You can’t find your keys. You’re going to be late to meet your friend, but you just cannot find your keys. In between tearing through couch cushions and clutter, you’re also shoveling handfuls of M&Ms in your mouth every time you pass the cabinet.
The core feature isn’t the food itself. It’s:
The amount of food
The limited time frame
The loss of control while it’s happening.
Binge Eating vs. Binge Eating Disorder?
In general, eating disorders can exist almost on a spectrum - first an unhelpful behavior, then a disordered pattern, and finally a full blown disorder.
There are two main factors separate binge eating episodes from Binge Eating Disorder (BED):
Frequency: the Diagnostics and Statistics Manual V (the diagnosing bible for mental health professionals) requires at least one binge episode per week for 3 months.
Functioning: How effective are you in daily life? (work, hygiene, friendships, hobbies, etc.)
Binge Eating Disorder shows up in binge episodes, yes, but also in the food noise, guilt, and shame take over your brain until work, relationships, and joy shrink (even if your waist line doesn’t).
Binge Eating Disorder isn’t just about food. It’s about how thoughts and feelings take over your life.
Binge Eating vs. Binge Eating Disorder
Let’s play another round of “is this human, or is this an issue?”
Scenario #1: PMS Pastries
The week before your period every month, you are ravenous. And even if you aren’t hungry, you still feel a NEED for food. You may have a few binging episodes during that time. Then when menstruation starts, your appetite regulates. Until 21 days later.
Binge eating episodes? Check
Consistent for 12 weeks? No.
It’s cyclical, not constant.
Result: this is not Binge Eating Disorder.
Scenario #2: Break Up Binges
You’re going through a break up. Life feels impossible, and the only comfort you can seem to find is in the bottom of an ice cream container. Most evenings, you have a binge eating episode. About six weeks post-break up, you begin locking in your new schedule and the binge eating drops off.
Binge eating episodes? Check
At least once a week? Check
For 12 weeks? No.
This does not qualify as Binge Eating Disorder.
What Causes Binge Eating Disorder?
There is no single cause of Binge Eating Disorder. It’s a mix of genetics, biology, relationships, finances, personality traits.
I’ll go through some of the common ones here (this is also an excellent resource if you’re interested in further reading)
Genetics
Binge Eating Disorder does appear to run in families.
The neurology contribution also points to genetic connection.
There is no specific gene connected to BED though.
Neurology:
fMRI scans have shown how the brain reacts different for typical people vs. people with ADHD or binge eating:
A person with BED’s reward processing centers reacts way more to anticipating a reward,
But those same reward processing centers react much less to receiving the reward, showing the internal mechanisms for the drive to keep eating.
A person with BED will also show different different neurological responses to impulse control and emotion regulation than neurotypical people.
Personality:
Perfectionism is strongly linked to the development of eating disorders.
Perfectionism can sound like:
“It’s not okay to make mistakes”
“I have to be perfect to make up for my inadequacies”
“I have to be perfect to stay in control”
The body becomes a tangible way to measure perfectionism and control - a metaphor turned into real life.
Other personality traits that are associated with developing eating disorders are emotional sensitivity and rejection sensitivities.
ADHD and Binge Eating Disorder: The Connection
Binge eating is absolutely associated with ADHD. Also, ADHD is found to be associated with binge eating - they exist on a two way street.
Studies show:
People with ADHD are more likely to binge eat
People with obesity have a 50% chance of having ADHD.
1 in 10 people with ADHD will develop an eating disorder
And people with BED are more likely to also have anxiety, depression, ADHD.
How ADHD and Binge Eating Overlap
Studies generally identified three main areas of overlap in neurological processing between people with ADHD and people with binge eating:
Impulse Control (referred to as response inhibition in research):
The ADHD brain and the Binge Eating Disorder brain both struggle with impulse control, but in different ways:
ADHD brains → the level of impulse control depended on the subject matter. It’s interest driven.
Binge Eating brains → the level of impulse control depended on the mood. Negative affect or mood generally meant worse impulse control.
2. Emotion Regulation:
ADHD: heightened sensitivity to emotions and fears of others, more emotional reactivity, and difficulty processing emotions in their prefrontal cortex.
BED: difficulty identifying emotions, creating unhelpful coping skills, disassociating during binges.
3. Reward Processing:
Similar to impulse control, studies confirm that people with ADHD and people with BED both struggle with reward processing, but in different ways.
ADHD brain → Under responsive neural circuits to anticipating the reward, but over responsive to getting the reward (waiting = whatever, receiving = euphoria).
BED brain → Over responsive neural circuits to anticipating the reward, but under responsive to getting the reward. (waiting = tantalizing, receiving = anticlimatic).
So a person with both ADHD and binge eating is dealing with difficulties at two ends.
It’s not like 1+1 =2. It’s like 1+1 = 5.
The neural circuits of ADHD prime the brain to have a messy relationship with food, which can include binge eating episodes and even a Binge Eating Disorder diagnosis. .
If you live in South Carolina and you’re nodding along because this sounds like you — you don’t have to navigate ADHD binge eating alone. I’d love to help. Schedule your call now.
What Helps ADHD Binge Eating?
The bad news is ADHD and binge eating feed off of each other (please excuse the pun).
The good news - because they are so interrelated, lots of things can be helpful.
The most important part of helping ADHD and binge eating is taking a holistic approach.
The list I have here on approaches that are helpful is not exhaustive, it’s just what I find to be the most helpful for my clients.
Medication
One of the most common questions Google receives about binge eating and ADHD is “What ADHD medication helps with binge eating?”
I am not a psychiatrist, but I will try to answer this as best as my expertise allows me, and with the studies I’ve read.
Stimulants like Adderall and Vyvanse are prescribed often because they:
Improvements emotion regulation and impulse control
Make boring-but-important tasks (like meal prep) feel possible
Reduce overwhelm.
There is an important piece to remember about medication, especially stimulant medication: it leaves your system.
Stimulants wear off. ADHD is 24/7. Medicine can be powerful, it just can’t be the only tool.
Coaching or Therapy for Executive Dysfunction
Binge eating episodes can result from executive dysfunction (Forgot lunch, survive off vending machine, arrive home and binge).
Therapy or coaching for executive dysfunction can help eliminate the stress around food and health. Sometimes the simplest techniques (a timer, a visual reminder) can make an enormous difference.
Emotion and Relationship Focused Therapy
Difficult emotions and relationship problems come with binge eating. It’s par for the course.
Therapy helps you:
Make peace with difficult emotions
Develop tools to handle difficult days
Rebuild trust with your own self, as well as a partner.
Therapy needs to happen with a professional who understands how binge eating and ADHD are connected.
Somatic Focused Therapy
With ADHD + binge eating, body signals can get filtered out.
Hunger cues are quiet, fullness cues are non existent, and emotional discomfort cues can be deafening.
We know that people with ADHD lack interoceptive awareness - the ability to notice and understand your internal sensations.
Somatic Focused Therapy works to:
Develop attunement to the physical body
Create experiences that allow for nervous system regulation
Build a trusting relationship between the mind and body
I see my somatic focused therapy work like couples therapy.
Except instead of enhancing the relationship between a couple, I’m enhancing the connection, trust, and collaboration between a person’s body and their thinking mind.
If you’re in South Carolina and want to explore therapy that understands ADHD and binge eating together — I’d love to talk. Click here to connect.
Conclusion
If you’ve ever thought “why can’t I just treat food normally like my friends?”, you’re not alone. And you’re not broken. You have a unique brain and body in a world and economy driven by fatphobia.
Here’s what I want you to walk away with today:
Validation: If you feel like food is ruining your life, it makes a little more sense. You’re not crazy. Your brain and body need a different approach to nourishment and longevity than a typically developing person does.
Competence: Now you know the signs, causes, and treatment options. You can advocate for yourself with your doctor, psychiatrist, and (hopefully!) therapist. The connection between ADHD and binge eating is strong, complicated, and deserves a nuanced approach.
Hope: Food noise can become something you used to deal with. You can develop a positive perspective of the meat suit carrying you around in the world. Eating and exercising can be nice things you do, and also the least interesting things about you.
Image: outdoor cup of coffee.
A Personal Note:
I remember experiencing food noise when I was 3. Dieting in middle school made it louder. Then it took over my damn life.
I entered eating disorder recovery when I was 27, and now at 32 I can honestly say I very rarely think about food. Like, it’s just neutral:
fun at a birthday party.
functional when I’m hungry at school pick up
helpful when I’m feeling sick.
Yes, I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 30, and started medication then. But I had been living without food noise for years before that.
If I can do it, I promise you can too.
And if you live in SC and want some help, schedule a call and let’s chat.
P.S. If you’re interested in the studies I mentioned, here are the links for them. The main study I reference is a review of relevant neuroimaging research, so it compiled a lot of information in one place.
Comorbidity of binge eating disorder and other psychiatric disorders: a systematic review.
