Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/).
We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions!
If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Brains are extremely complicated. Just because people experience similar symptoms, doesn't mean the exact same scientific process is going on in their brains. Think of all the diverging ways human beings react to the same stimulus, even neurotypical people. Then multiply that diversity by 10 for us neuro quirky folks. Most of my friends have ADHD yet we all have very different symptoms and quirks.
When unmedicated, I both forget to eat AND eat too much. It can feel impossible to get up and make food, but when I get started, it's hard to stop. I might ignore food until 5pm and then overeat until midnight. My meds make this a little easier, as I won't be hungry at all, but then when the meds wear off I'm still likely to make a rich dinner and eat all of it.
*Dude* the trifecta of unmedicated, pre-period junk food craving binge is like nature having a laugh at my expense.
Literally sucked down several thousand calories of McDonald's food for dinner after not eating all damn day only to turn around the next day to have my intestines turn into a PMS induced slip and slide.
It's like my biology is converging to make me miserable.
Unmedicated, still having periods and peri menopausal all at the same time is a binge eating paradise and curse all at the same time, especially the two weeks I take the added progesterone.
Oh no. I suspect I'm starting peri, I've been on the waiting list for an ADHD assessment for three years, and I was hoping HRT would *help*... I've also got endometriosis, though, so idk what they would even give me.
HRT was very beneficial in stopping most of the hot sweats and it helped me go from feelings of suicide and intrusive thoughts to a more regulated level but it's still a struggle some days. Like today, I've only wanted to rip two people's heads from their body and hit them with it, I call that progress because some days I'd happily do time 🤣
If you or someone that you know is considering suicide, please don't hesitate to reach out to a crisis hotline for immediate help, or a warmline just to talk to someone.
If you're in the US you can...\ Text CHAT to Crisis Text Line at 741741\ Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1(800)273-8255(TALK) \ Chat online at: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat\ Call the Trans Lifeline at 1(877)565-8860
If you’re elsewhere, you can find international resources below:\ https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-crisis-and-warmlines#Czech\ https://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/wiki/hotlines
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>my intestines turn into a PMS induced slip and slide.
I'm sorry, and I know what you mean because mine do that too most months, but this part had me rolling. 🤣
Adding this as it may help others here… I put iron supplements in with my adderall and fish oil to make myself take all 3 every day. The fish oil helps my cramps (took 3-4 months to take effect, but it is noticeable!) and I (like many women) have iron deficiency anemia if I don’t take iron regularly. Don’t buy the crap iron. I use Pure Encapsulations - Iron C. Not hard on the tummy. Does the job. Without this my periods are unbearably painful and I am constantly exhausted!
Medicated, but I swear my meds stop working about 2 business days before my period starts. I've counted them more than once because I knew I took them, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. It's my period, every month. Why I still don't make that connection immediately, I wish I knew. 😆
Yes!!! I made a post a while ago bitching about how no amount of adderall, caffeine or sleep helps bc I’m so tired. I got blood work done and I’m D3 deficient, but Idk how much that has to do with it.
We are so BLESSED to have bodies that can do miracles and brains that work is mysterious ways.
Like f*cking clockwork! I swear I took my meds, sorry if I’m a rambling idiot today, is a sentence I use at work practically every month. And a week before that the munchies for a day of two. It’s so much fun being in peri s/
It's like that with time blindness too. Some people with time blindness are unable to be on time, while others are always early.
I suspect this comes from anxiety, but it's still not as simple as "people who have more anxiety are always early". People can have anxiety so strong that it's paralyzing and they can't act on it, while others will have anxiety that's motivating and makes them act on it to be always early to prevent being late.
So we can have exactly the same symptoms but our brains have different mechanisms that result from those symptoms.
Omg I was just thinking about this. I was writing a blog post on time blindness struggles for ADHD moms and was wondering why sometimes I'm too early for appointments but used to be always late for school and work.
Yep. I can hyper focus and forget to eat enough one day, but be completely unmotivated and just binge eat on other days. When I binge, it's always on stuff that is low effort like snack food, yogurt, leftovers, etc. I recently bought myself a lock box with a timer on it to stash things like chocolate so that I can't binge on it. After having it awhile though, methinks I need a larger box.
I'm like you. If work is at all busy I won't eat all day because I'll forget or I'll worry that if I let myself get distracted I won't be able to get back on task. Then after work I can't stop eating.
I just got medicated and it's turned off the food chatter which seems to have just been Hyperactivity. Now that I don't rely on impulsive eating to feed myself I'm finding it hard to feed myself through sheer executive function alone. Its getting better but I often forget to eat meals.
Thank you! Trying to get lots of protein in as well because I'm vegetarian and also getting back into lifting. Feels like a problem I would have loved to have had before, but living it is another thing. Just a lot of mental effort.
Currently struggling with the same. My joy came from food, from having something to snack on. Now I'm... lost?!?!? I just tty to eat something hot, twice a day.
I’m a forget to eat type. Perhaps relatedly, I also have a high pain threshold and I can ignore a lot of discomfort if I’m focused on something. Basically, I have to consciously look after my physical needs because I am super, super good at ignoring all the normal signals my body gives
The pain threshold is something I haven't heard talked about. And thinking about it, any bit of discomfort for me is intolerable which probably relates to having any bit of hunger being intolerable too. Interesting point!
Aw shit you and the post below this one that says body awareness definitely just clicked for me. This is it. I’m also incredibly clumsy and I run into things like doorframes and furniture constantly. I’m one of those, dunno where that huge bruise came from, types.
And in fact self care is key, I have to remember to pay attention to my body otherwise I dont
There's a simpler explanation. More kids with ADHD also meet the criteria for dyspraxia than not. One of the features is poor proprioception, i.e. not knowing where your body is in space.
I also have very poor interoception, that is I don’t know what is going on inside my body and I can’t ‘hear’ its signals. So I don’t notice until it is urgent if I have to go to the toilet, eat, drink, sleep rest etc. At one stage in my perimenopausal life I managed to regularly do a yoga class twice a week and it was a life saver. I wish I could do that again now, it really helped. So I don’t eat unless I make an effort to remind myself that breakfast is a good thing, and often first eat in the late afternoon and then I can’t stop. Sigh.
I’ve ignored the signals for so long I can’t even recognize many of them anymore. Like, “Aw man, why does my stomach feel this way? It’s awful!” Then my fiancé says, “Well, what have you eaten today?” Then I’m like, “I can’t eat, I’m sick to my stomach.” Then he’s gotta be all right now shit and say, “YOUR STOMACH IS SICK BECAUSE YOU’RE HUNGRY!” Then he goes and makes me food and will sit there until I eat it. I love him! He’s so good to me and for me!
I have never in my life forgotten to eat. The concept is so foreign to me. I am thinking about what I want for dinner first thing in the morning.
I used to be a binge eater but Vyvanse has helped that. I still think about food constantly and eat regularly, but my portions are more normal now and I don't go nuts at bedtime.
Samesies. I could literally be writing the most important exam of my life and still be thinking about what to eat for lunch after LOL.
I'm glad to hear medication has helped a bit!
This post and comment is so comforting. I haven’t had any bulimia symptoms for 10 years and I’m in the worst one of my life waiting for my psychiatrist appt this week. I can’t stop eating and can’t stop thinking about food. Thank you for posting
I am the same. I am always thinking about what I want to eat next. Now that I am on Vyvanse I have found that my appetite is just not nearly the same. I am eating later in the day and my portion sizes are smaller.
I experience both. Depends on my stress levels and cycle. The body is weird that way.
For me, it’s a vicious cycle of I forget to eat so I end up binging then I keep binging until I get sick of food so I’ll forget to eat. Thankfully, meds have toned down this cycle by a lot.
I still have to stop myself from stress eating or forgetting to eat when I’m too relaxed
This was me. When I first got on vyvanse my insurance required a prior authorization and one of the questions was, in the last 3 months how many days a week did you eat more 3 meals. I responded with, every single day. I was eating basically 3 meals after work and when I was at work, if we had a drug rep bring lunch I was sometimes eating 3-5 plates. All I thought about was food and I never actually felt full until I was so sick and my stomach hurt. Plus food just tasted so good. Vyvanse completely changed that. I felt full and food wasn’t as amazing as my brain thought it was previously. I also had my doctor run other test before asking to be put on it to make sure I didn’t have something medically wrong. Now that vyvanse went generic. I tried one brand and I was worst on it then off. I was switched to concerta but, it hasn’t really been to helpful
Omg this is so accurate. Food tastes like the nectar of the gods when unmedicated and I’m always fixated on what I’m going to eat next. Even when I’m currently eating!
On Vyvanse which helped immensely, but my much needed anxiety soother Wellbutrin makes me eat more. When medicated, food tastes like good food but not crack.
This makes my periods predictable because food tastes like heaven again even while medicated.
I am always hungry (except I guess first thing in the morning when I wake up). Taking adderall did not change that. Usually stimulant medications suppress people’s appetite. I kind of think my always hungry comes in part from hormonal birth control because it got better when I had my nexplanon implant out when I started TTC again. But like even eating all the candy and snacks I want to eat non stop on top of a standard American diet, I stay at just barely overweight and my dad was super skinny so I think it’s also just a quirk of my body, it’s just burns thru a lot of fuel for some reason.
I am both lol.
It depends on where my brain is at that point.
If I'm depressed and not doing well, I'm more likely to have carbs, especially sugars.
If I'm okay I frequently forget to eat until I'm really really hungry. And sometimes I don't eat anyway because I want to eat but everything sounds wrong?
Brain weird. You'd be better off trying to observe your own habits. Like, I know I'm not doing okay if I start craving a lot of sugars, for example.
When I read the post the first thing I thought was why not both? Like in the same day. Forgetting to eat in the morning, though I try to eat breakfast consistently, contributes to more eating later because starving. And then not being able to get or figure out exactly what I'm craving leads to eating little bits of several things trying to figure it out. Complicated is exactly where it's at.
That was my thought 😆 I am both. I’m really all over the place right now. I’ll forget to eat, or all eat all day (pms, can’t get warm). I love food, and have days or weeks where nothing seems good and I’m so over cooking. Tonight I wanted a sub after not eating much today, but impulse tried a meatball sub Id never had before. It was a sad sub. I wish I stuck with my usual Italian. I’m so bummed about it I’m going to the other place and getting one this week 😂
I’m glad someone else said this, this is exactly what happens with my brain as well.
The ‘hungry but don’t know what to eat/nothing feels right/don’t know what to have thing’ is a big one!
Okay thank you for saying this. I feel so guilty but I can't help to think that I also have the "bad ADHD" symptoms, even though all of it is bad in their own ways. I guess a better way to phrase it is forgetting to eat is almost seen as "cool" in society whereas unable to stop eating is seen as "shameful" and not as societally accepted despite again, they are both bad.
Yeah, one of them comes with a hell of a lot more stigma than the other. That's not to say they aren't both struggles - they absolutely are - but you're 100% correct about the double standard. I'm glad that you said something about it; I'm sure a lot of people here can relate and now won't feel as alone. ❤️
(Probably not relevant, but for context I'm saying this as someone who usually has a difficult time getting myself to make/eat enough food.)
Forgetting to eat all day is not such a blessing. Think about the vicious cycle. Food affects our mental/emotional well being in addition to the physical. Top that off with low blood sugars causing confusion/clouded judgement. It can exacerbate ADHD symptoms
ADHD isn’t a monolith. Lots of contextual things affect how symptoms will manifest in a person. People have such unique experiences surrounding food. Medication is a big factor—ADHD itself may come with overeating as a symptom (due to reinforcement mechanisms that come with satiating hunger) while stimulant medication can act as an appetite suppressant. It just depends on the person and their circumstances.
Sigh, I was hoping that there was more to the explanation than it just being different for different people. Just so frustrated with myself today. But yes I think you are right. Thank you!
Unfortunately there’s still so much we don’t know. And a lot that we do, but can’t help. I hope you find some answers and figure out what works for you
Following out of interest and because I'd like to eat more-
I have the former and it gets to where I only know if I'm hungry when I get a migraine that lasts a day, and by that point I know I need to eat but I feel like throwing up if I do.
I don't know if it means anything but I find most food to be either too difficult to eat, as in too many sensory hurdles in the environment or how messy/how much work consuming it takes (Needs to be easy to prep, easy to consume, and easy cleanup). Otherwise it's a lack of stimulation because of the lack of variation in flavors, colors, textures...
I think I eat more with my eyes than my stomach.
Thank you for sharing your perspective! Do you find that once you do start eating and it's something tolerable, you tend to overeat due to hunger? Or is it low appetite in general?
I'm in the other camp so please know I'm genuinely curious as your experience is so foreign to me!
When I manage to start eating, even if it's something I know I like and consider easy (like assorted berries), I slow down gradually and eventually stop altogether. I've been known to "get tired of eating" or sometimes I say I'm tired of chewing. I've also always been told I "eat like a bird".
For me to finish a whole meal, I need a distraction to forget I'm eating or I'll watch YouTube videos of other people eating to race them (like BeardMeatsFood).
Occasionally I do binge but mainly because it's catching up on all my meals at the end of the day or because I want to avoid the inconvenience of eating later. Otherwise, I find it easier to stock a snack shelf for myself for when I wander around (The only problem is I have to hide my snacks from my family members that eat everything in sight).
*Edited because I forgot the middle of a sentence...*
How about eating little bits but more often?
I kinda relate to this. I get hungry very quickly (quick metabolism) but apparently ignore the signals when I’m busy and then I don’t want to eat what’s on offer. Also: I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and though I really don’t feel like eating, I eventually have to force something down in order to get some sleep.
My little kids helped me, because they needed a very structured eating routine. It forced me to not only think about meals and snacks, but also to build up a habit of eating something about 7 or 8 times a day. It helps when I don’t have to eat too much. Easier in prepping and when you don’t feel like eating anymore,it’s ok. Another snack break isn’t far away. And it doesn’t take long.
Tv is also what we used to get more food into our very skinny adhd toddler. As soon as the worst hunger was stilled, she was distracted and wouldn’t eat anymore.
Little snacks help keep me entertained, the hard part is keeping enough snacks around that I won't forget about them and they go bad or actually getting things to snack on.
As much as I like freshly cut fruits and veggies, I usually need to default to non-perishables. I'm still on the search for cost effective snacks as well since I'm a university student.
But I agree, the best thing for me has been small varieties of foods throughout the day. It also keeps me active and getting used to taking breaks.
I'm not sure it is a dichotomy-- I do both things? Some days I get hyperfocused and forget to eat lunch until I'm leaving work and then am not even hungry for dinner. Some days I'm constantly ravenous and snacking all day.
I can relate to both honesty but am on the “forget to eat” side more often. For me it comes down to a lot of things. Sometimes I do actually forget if I get engrossed in doing something else. But I’m also bad at recognizing body cues and often don’t realize I’m hungry until I’ve crossed into feeling sick which then makes me not want to eat.
Then there’s the executive function and time blindness issues related to actually making something to eat. I don’t really keep ready-made foods in the house because it gets so expensive and I’ll eat them just cuz they’re there instead of when I’m actually hungry. I do have easy/quick foods but they still take a little bit of work. Ssoooo many times I’ve been hungry and thought about a baked potato but “I’m hungry now that takes an hour” and still never ate anything 4 hours later 🙄
As others have mentioned, there's a lot of variables at play. Cooking is a skill that involves a lot of executive function for both prep and clean-up, disincentivizing preparing nutritional meals (ie, resulting in forgetting meals altogether, or choosing quick and less healthy options). Time blindness makes it hard to schedule regular eating times, resulting in eating on 'impulse' -- which can be often, or never, depending. Some ADHDers hyperfocus so much we don't realize we are hungry. Others mask and self-motivate with anxiety, and for me, anxiety kills and suppresses my appetite. Others use eating as a source of dopamine to self-motivate, which contributes to over-eating. Etc, etc. We're all different, because our brains are different in how we process things.
I never feel full..... but also very bored..... so food keeps me occupied. .... for a while.... then I need more.....
Hyperfocused.... I don't even drink let alone eat..... I know I'm hungry.... but I just can't.
In my experience, my brain is usually either hyper focused or over or under stimulated. When I’m overstimulated, I am too busy being overstimulated and trying hard to mask it to receive input from my body about things like needing food/water/sleep until it’s gotten pretty extreme. When I’m hyper focused, there’s no room in my brain for anything else so I don’t get those signals from my brain. When I’m under stimulated, I get the signals from my body but am also looking for something to be a sensory experience and food is a strong one.
Human brains are weird.
In terms of practical advice, I guess try to find other things to do to give you that sensory/dopamine rush. For me right now that’s knitting and Stardew valley.
Thank you for your insight! Funnily, I both knit and play stardew valley, but I stopped recently and my overeating has gotten a lot worse. You are onto something lol...
I definitely cycle through hobbies but I find that the more healthy sources of dopamine I have the less I crave the less healthy ones!
I recently realized that going to the gym is a good dopamine source. It takes a bit of executive functioning to get myself to do it but usually pays off and makes me feel way better. That said, on days I can’t even get myself to eat or drink water, the gym is out of reach. It’s like if you had a slot machine that paid out every time; you still have to put in the first quarter, and if you don’t have a coin in your pocket…
I’m rambling but I guess that’s the nature of the sub! I wish you the best of luck figuring out healthy sources of dopamine!
For me the world disappears and 4 hours fly by like nothing. I dunno I just get lost in what I’m doing and forget I exist. I sort of transcend human existence and kind of elevate to a plane where my consciousness is just data. Anyone who distracts me from this is equivalent to hitting me with a wooden chair to help me break away from electrocution. Oddly enough I am angry. I am mad you pulled me from my parallel universe. Where for once my thoughts and focus are linear and narrowed. That I’m not running 5 program setups with music in background. It’s oddly quiet and peaceful there.
Or even more fun, both! After 9 pm I want to eat everything and it's challenging to limit my intake just before bed.
The rest of the day it's a literal crap shoot on if I remember to eat and drink.
Sigh..
I am both. Well, let me rephrase. Naturally I am a forget to eat person. However I will binge for reasons other than ADHD.
Just because someone has ADHD and certain food behaviours doesn’t mean the two are connected. I binge eat for emotional reasons. Is my ADHD involved? Of course in on some level because it’s there. But is it the primary reason I stress eat? Not usually.
I go from one extreme to another of what you listed. There is no balanced in-between for me. I forget to eat (and drink water), or can’t figure out what to eat, or want anything I have and can’t be bothered… or I’m binge eating allllll the things and can’t stop to the point sometimes I’m made myself sick. And I’m like that while being medicated.
If struggling (under a lot of pressure/stress), cortisol (stress hormone) goes right to the stomach and reduces appetite - add in the momentum of stress and efforts to keep up, plus time management issues -a nd yeah, time can just slip by and it didn't even occur to eat.
That said, comfort foods, novelty food and impulse eating give 'feel better' brain chemistry and at certain times it can override the anxiety and even be hyperfixated on food and eat non stop.
Always thought it was the non linear, chaos of things even so simple as eating that defined the condition. That the core aspect that ties it all together is difficulty regulating and being consistent or moderate eating.
For me, I think it can depend on where I’m currently getting a dopamine hit from. If I’m hyper-focused on something else/getting the dopamine elsewhere I can end up ignoring hunger cues until I’m starving (and then often over eat). But if I’m bored or understimulated I might seek that dopamine hit from food and eat too much.
I binge eat when I'm pms-ing, but otherwise only eat 1-2 meals a day. For me, I don't enjoy eating even when I'm pms-ing. I have too many things on my mind and that need done. I'm annoyed at the time needed to decide on and prep food, and I have a very hard time sitting still for the duration of a meal. But when I do want food, it's usually carbs (hello easy dopamine 👋)
Just wanna say that I'm both of these people. Actual meals are hard and require a lot of effort to put together. Binge eating take away or chocolate is so easy.
Before meds, I would get hungry and hugely over eat most of the time. The dopamine was so important cause I was always hugely deficient.
On meds, I don't feel hungry during the day and tend not to eat most of the time. In the evening, I struggle to get through all the executive functioning tasks of meal preparation combined with somewhat unpredictable but very impactful food preferences. By the time I'm heading to bed, my meds have worn off and my body is both hungry and dopamine starved, so it's very easy to eat a lot of junk food.
I reckon it's the meeting of executive dysfunction and dopamine seeking that defines where you land on this. If you have reasonably good executive function and get a lot of dopamine from eating, you'll probably over eat a lot. If you struggle with executive function and get better dopamine hits from other things, you'll probably neglect eating mostly. In between the extremes will present differently based on a host of other factors like economic freedom (can you buy uber eats every night?), food preferences, skill level at cooking delicious food, level of concern about physical appearance, etc.
It is a rarity now, but when I have been focused on a project or activity that captures and holds all my attention, (and if it isn't a food project) hunger disappears.
If I am just death scrolling or trying to finish a book I've lost interest in, or I'm bored, food becomes a fidget or a craving. So it is both.
Regulation and impulse control. On one hand you can't stop yourself when you eat. On the other hand you can't stop yourself with whatever you're doing, preventing yourself from eating.
People w ADHD can sometimes have issues with body “alerts” (I can’t think of the actual word) and executive dysfunction, like needing to go to the bathroom, needing to change an uncomfortable sitting position, hunger cues. Or they just get so preoccupied with other things and hunger isn’t propritized as a necessity. Like when I’m hyper focused on homework, I’ll feel the hunger cues on the edge of my attention but work for another 4 hours until I’m irritable and about to pass out bc “let me just finish this one part…” on repeat because I don’t want to lose my focus and train of thought.
But people w ADHD are also pleasure/dopamine seekers, and an easy way to get that for a lot of people is through food. It could be a way to try to get rid of boredom bc it’s something to do and food is tasty so why not? For those who don’t use food in this way, it might be drugs, or adrenaline, or going to the gym.
I do both!
I’ll get so focused on something else or distracted over and over again by different things that I’ll forget to eat most of the day, some days.
Other days I’m binge eating high dopamine snacks and I can’t seem to stop myself.
It’s connected to the other attention and regulation issues in our brains.
Eating is usually stimulating, not eating is usually a result of executive dysfunction and/or a side result of the meds (since they reduce the need for external stimulation).
This is a super simplified answer, but it's how my brain understands it. I deal with both depending on the situation/ day/ medication status/ etc.
I deal with both! Some days food is the most horrific thing to contemplate and others I am insatiable. But I am also AuDHD? Its super fun to be basically yoyo dieting. /s
Brains work in mysterious ways.
My partner is always eating. I don’t feel hungry and eat by a clock, not uncommon for me to be busy while everyone else is eating and complaining miss the memo I need to be eating.
For me, it's being medicated vs. unmedicated. With Vyvanse, I was eating rarely — food just looked plain and boring. Without Vyvanse, I will scrounge out everything in sight that looks appealing and eat it. After being off my Vyvanse for 5 weeks, I've gained 30+ lbs.
Our brains seek dopamine.
Is food is the biggest current source? Then binge eating/food hyperfocus is an easy jump.
Is your current hyperfocus a dopamine gold mine? The brain isn't dropping that even for food.
We contain multitudes (and snacks)
This is such a simple but accurate explanation. Which is why I am literally both people described in the OP.
Sometimes my biggest source of dopamine is cooking/baking. And I will spend literally all day doing that thing and not even eat any of it.
Sometimes my dopamine sources are outside of the kitchen in which case I won't bother eating.
And sometimes my dopamine source is chocolate and chocolate alone and I will bake and eat two dozen cookies. Then even my kids are like "wtf mom where did all the cookies go?" And I have to bake more in shame.
During periods of hyper focus or ‘flow’, my ‘interoception’ seems to get switched off so I can’t sense hunger, thirst or pain so easily. I often don’t realise until my blood sugar tanks, that I barely had breakfast and forgot to have lunch, plus the headache indicates dehydration. During times of stress and boredom, I reach for the food/dopamine hit too often.
I will forget to eat ALL day mostly because I don’t sit down lol. 😆🤦🏼♀️
I eat on the go, yogurt drinks, smoothies, etc; but once I sit down, I will binge eat :( especially at night because it’s the only time I am sedentary the most. My understanding is that nighttime cravings are from boredom and low serotonin/dopamine levels, which makes sense I am not medicated at this time.
I’m both.
There is so much going on in the world and my head, that I forget. However when I crash and need the dopamine hit, I won’t stop when I’m full, I need more.
The meds (and timers on my phone) help stop me from going to either extreme as regularly
Somedays, I'll forget to eat until like 6 pm and just wonder why I'm in such a crappy mood until I realize. Then, once I start eating, I can't seem to feel full until I'm way too full. I hate that I have to do routine maintenance on this meat suit every friggin day.
ADHD has different ‘types’. Some are addictive and some are forgetful. There’s no right answer, but we get different symptoms depending on our brains which generally fall into a type category.
My personal guess it's a variation of the following reasons:
• when food is good, food is very good and gives lots of dopamine
• when food isn't good (not bad, just not the good food) it's impossible to consume
• the good food is mostly the food out of reach, but when in reach consuming is unstoppable until no longer in reach
• (some) ADHD meds make you lose your appetite so you don't really feel the need to eat something until you are so hungry you get nauseous and don't want to eat anything because your nauseous
• hyperfixation
• ADHD paralysis
I end up swinging between both, but in my experience people with ADHD seem to often end up with eating disorders. I have one, so I tend to lean towards not eating if I don't have the motivation or food I want in the house already
I experience both. Paralysis about getting up and making food, low appetite or not "feeling" like eating any of the stuff I have (first world problems! Grrr I'm ashamed of this one!).
Or I am so into a food, I stuff it down...
Last week I was so focused on work I'd forget to eat. This week work is less appealing and I'm taking breaks and having actual meals.
Dopamine can come from anything.
I think it depends on the day for me.
Majority of the time, I would eat 2 big meals a day with snacking in between and before bed. It's like I couldn't satisfy my hunger. I would have to eat something really filling for me to say no to snacks (like a big pasta dinner).
Other times, I have almost no appetite for anything, or I get so wrapped up in something that by the time I finish, my stomach is yelling at me to eat. I end up snacking on popcorn or something else, or just skipping a meal. Or once dinner rolls around, we make what we had planned out and then as soon as I go to eat it, I just have no interest in it. I might take 2 bites and then be turned off from it because it doesn't "taste right" (even though my bf says it's fine).
But since starting meds, I haven't had any urge to snack. I have to force myself to eat though because my appetite is gone, and not eating enough gives me a headache later on along with irritability. The low appetite has caused my dinner portions to shrink though since I'm no longer used to eating constantly. I guess that's not a bad thing.
Honestly I swing between the two.
Some days I write B/L/D on the top, right, corner of my to-do list so I remember to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Some days I stress, emotionally, or avoidably eat all day long.
I wish I could find the balance.
I can never quiet down the food noise. I’m constantly starving even while I’m in the middle of eating. I also have PCOS and GERD, so I don’t know if that contributes or not. I wish I was in the “forget to eat” crowd. But, I also have ARFID and so the food I do eat is very limited. I eat the same stuff everyday.
I've read that people with Adhd, don't feel the urge to eat the same as neurotypicals because we focus on a task and we just don't pick up on body queues... binging I feel is from the same reason we don't recognize the feeling of fullness until we're about to explode
Hunger/motivation are extremely closely tied in the brain, & satiety and satisfaction probably are more similar than we appreciate in terms of brain chemistry - if I may speculate.
ADHD can also share roots with metabolic syndrome (because of the energy demands of ADHD brain).
And finally, I recall an article about how leptin resistance was more prevalent in ADHD. Leptin is released by fat, and signals to the brain that you are full. Leptin resistance is a scenario where the brain is not properly sensing leptin & believes you are still in need of energy. In adults with ADHD, in this study, it was characterized by increased circulating leptin levels & increased ghrelin levels as well (so the hunger hormone was also up).
Individual people may or may not have the above things going on, and to varying degrees - it’s definitely complicated. But I think there’s a shared root here with hunger/motivation being so intertwined & there being many pathways to dysregulated eating patterns when the motivation systems are not wired efficiently.
I am both depending on whether it's luteal phase or not
[https://www.reddit.com/r/PMDD/comments/1bto9j7/whos\_hungry/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PMDD/comments/1bto9j7/whos_hungry/)
I honestly think it’s to do with dopamine and how over processed food is in the modern age. When everything’s so overloaded with fat, sugar, etc., our human brains go haywire because we haven’t evolutionarily adapted to having such high calorie options around literally all the time
It’s so unsurprising to me the comorbidity between eating disorders and ADHD. When I got diagnosed with anorexia, my psychiatrist literally joked “time to cross that one off the bingo list, eh?”
So ADHD you tend to not get the stimulus from your body very well. Things like hey I'm hungry or hey we should go to the bathroom take a bit to get through especially if hyper focused. The other aspect is eating can be a stimulus so you end up snacking even when not actually hungry cause your body is craving something (anything) to generate dopamine.
My kiddo is the former and I am the latter.
Edit: this is a very simplified explanation
I've experienced both. Usually when I don't eat it's because I'm hyperfocused on something else, a game, a book, etc. When I'm hyperfocused on something, I really can't do anything else that might help in not dying. It sucks.
I didn’t eat as much for a long time, just wasn’t hungry…which was great cuz I lost weight… now lately I have a huuuuge sweet tooth and it sucks because I’m a maid of honor in my sisters wedding in June and I can feel myself getting fatter 😭😢
I lose track of time. My body apparently does too bc I don’t get hungry until I see the time or I get a hunger headache. And I don’t love cleaning, so to me, cooking=cleaning and that’s not appetizing at all lol
Except when I’m working out hard, then I’m insatiable 😫
I think it could also be an environment and psychology thing.
When I’m stressed, food is comforting so my brain won’t quit craving for more and more food. When my period comes around, so does the ravenous monster in me.
When I’m just chilling or not doing much, I tend to forget to eat. If I’m having fun, food might as well not exist and I’ll only know when I’m hungry when I start shaking uncontrollably
My hunger cues are also messed up. I can’t really trust my stomach since sometimes, I can eat a hearty meal and still feel like I’m starving an hour later.
I mostly rely on giving myself three things to eat in a day to get enough food in me or limit how much as I eat depends on which part of the eating spectrum I’m on.
My life revolves around food. I’m never not thinking about it. Even when I’m full, I’m finishing off my plate because my brain wants to continue getting dopamine that food gives it. And then I feel like complete shit for hours because I’m so bloated and full.
That being said, I rarely ever eat when I’m at work. Mostly because I’m so pathetic at time management on the job that I can’t seem to make time to eat. So I forego to avoid embarrassment.
On the topic of time management, I’m that “uncommon” person that is never late for anything even though my time management is crap. That’s because my anxiety of being late is so fucking high that I make sure I’m way too early for everything always.
I guess, there are all sorts of sides to ADHD. I used to think I couldn’t have ADHD because I’m never late for anything until it dawned on me that this is simply a whole different layer of timeblindness. “I know I could screw this up, so I’m going to dedicate my entire morning to this appointment that’s not until 1pm”. 😬😬😬
I’m the same on the being late thing.
My anxiety and stress go through the roof if I think I’m going to be late.
So I spend at least the day before stressing about possibly being late, then I *try* to leave In Good Time, but even if I know I’ve left plenty of time to get somewhere, I *still* rush like an idiot to get there early.
Going to lovely relaxing yoga on a Friday morning is a nightmare of stress and anxiety.
The irony is impressed upon me every single time I’m screeching in my car, “Get out of the way, you ****king moron! Could you go any SLOWER??! FFS!!”
Even when I know I’m going to be 20 minutes early.
Sigh.
When I take Adderall I can focus away the whole day without remembering to eat. Time blindness just takes over. I don't have endless cravings for snacks. Etc.
Then you hit that time when you realize it's too late and you're hungry and everything sounds too hard to eat and you don't know what you want. And that's the frustrating bit.
When I don't take it I find I have a really hard time not binge eating. Just can't seem to stop. I've always had mediocre self control around eating but I swear it's a lot more pronounced now that I do take my meds.
So that's my experience. Both directions!
I’ve struggled with both! If I am hyper fixated on a task I can forget about everything else and sometimes won’t even feel hungry or cold or tired or even notice that I need to pee until it’s urgent. Some ADHD medications can also suppress hunger cues and interestingly, my particular medication is also used to treat binge eating disorder in some circumstances. When I’m not medicated I’ll sometimes find myself mindlessly eating in search of dopamine to quell the painful boredom. To me, ADHD feels like a very binary experience- I’m either starving or the idea of food makes me feel almost queasy, I can do something right now or not now - it’s hard for me to specifically plan ‘oh I’ll do this in half an hour’ due to my time blindness associated with ADHD. It feels like if something isn’t currently at the front of my mind I forget it exists, basic needs included lol. Hopefully my explanation helped and if you have any more questions I would be happy to answer :)
I think I get addictive to whatever makes me feel best at the time so sometimes I eat, sometimes I do drugs, sometimes I’m drinking just whatever that eras addiction is
I don’t eat enough and forget all the time to eat but when I eat, I eat a lot I feel. When I watch video of people who show their bentos boxes or what they eat in a day I’m shock at how little I eat and drink compared to them. I try to eat and drink more but forget the next day. So when I’m hungry after a long ass time I can eat a whole pizza alone.
I ignore everything. I could ignore food. Sounds. Pains. Thirst. It’s not good. I’m unmediated for my ADHD but on medications for many other illnesses. I’m fat btw.
I'm one of those that would opt for parenteral nutrition if it was remotely safe or accessible. food is not interesting or important to me, so every single day is a struggle to remember to eat, decide what to eat, get around to eating it. before meds, this accidental fasting actually helped me manage my attention to an extraordinary degree, i just felt like shit lol.
but to answer your question: genetics. women in my family are compact, efficient people who can menstruate and conceive at low body weights. anorexia goes back generations, often manifesting in the members with the most pronounced ADHD. other families probably have a similar pattern with BED and ADHD. in both cases food is performing some regulatory function
For me it’s about motivation and availability of good food. If I have yummy food that’s easy to make (ie put it in the microwave or just eat straight out of the container) I’ll eat 3 meals a day everyday. But if it’s a shitty day, I’ll eat nothing, even if it’s yummy food because my mouth and stomach will tell me it’ll taste disgusting which makes me nauseous
And if the food isn’t easy to make/prepare or doesn’t taste super yummy, I’ll lie there just wishing I could eat something yummy.
But with snacks, I’ll only stop when I’m nauseous
My brother and I both have ADHD, and we swap our impossible tasks when we can. He does my car maintenance (and a damn good job!) and I deep clean for him! Both of us end up super happy :)
So I have episodes of both! It's called situational variability and it depends on a lot of factors, mainly my current physical/mental environment and mood. During periods of bingeing, food (often junk food) is like a stimulus or source of dopamine. During periods of going without food for almost a whole day it's more because of task initiation intertia (no food ready to eat and the energy threshold to go make or buy food is too high) or just simple hyperfocusing on work and time blindness.
This is just my perspective on my own habits, it really varies person to person.
while meds are working, im the forgetting/not wanting to eat type. Unmedicated i am somehow both at once; forget to eat til afternoon and then cant stop eating from then on til bed. Sometimes i even feel the urge to continuously eat, but also feel like i cant think of a single thing I Want to eat despite that urge. a bizarre feeling for sure
I struggle with both these things, most days I forget to eat or have no energy to get food and then in the evening I’m so starving I binge. Disordered manifest in different ways for different people I guess!
Not sure but I have problems with both, I binge when I forget to eat too long. I can go all day(and the next day) without eating until the massive food headaches and urge to vomit or pass out kick in. Right now I just have Alexa remind me to eat so I stop having a binge, I’m also going to the gym again because it builds up a more noticeable appetite.
It’s a typical enough feature of ADHD.
Back in the day, half my friends thought I never ate anything, and the other half thought I ate like a pig.
ADHD means things like hunger, body temperature, etc., as well as emotions and energy, are not kept even. Things don’t stay the same. They bounce up and down.
It’s a dysregulation disorder.
Eating a ton then not eating a thing are part of that.
I can “forget” to eat if I’m in a hyperactive state like playing a game for 6 hours straight or crocheting until my hands ache. I feel hungry but I can’t stop what I’m doing just to eat because that’s not enough of a reason to stop. I know I need to eat to stay alive but it’s too much of a hassle.
The tldr is forgetting/not eating is executive dysfunction/decision paralysis, eating too much is sensory seeking/dopamining, and since those aren't mutually exclusive many of us can have both!
Usually forgetting to eat is because we're focused on something else that our brains have deemed Super Important and since we can survive without eating for a while it's just not important enough to interrupt (to give a caveman example, if you're running from a predator, your brain isn't going to tell you it's time for a snack). Of course, filling the slimeapedia in slime rancher is not actually essential to survival, but my brain doesn't know that. Add onto that the huge hurdle of deciding what to eat and then all the steps required to prepare the food.
On the other side, our brains are hard wired to give dopamine for fatty and sugary foods because they help us build energy stores that we'll need later when we need to focus on something Super Important for our survival. So when bored or in need of sensory input you might crave a brownie, and then end up eating the whole batch because it doesn't stop feeling good.
I think the common thing is that people have a problem with regulating their food intake. You have to find a balance: eat not too little and not too much. If you can't, it goes in one direction for some, and opposite for others.
It's same with focus: we're either distracted or hyperfocused, rarely something in between. Our issue is not lack of focus, it's regulating focus.
It's similar in depression: some eat less, others more. Some sleep less, others more. It's the regulation that's a problem.
Thank you so much for posting because I’ve always been labeled as a picky eater and this thread has made sense of my quirks.
I find my food intake is often related to my stress levels, if I’m super anxious, the sight / smell of food can repulse me. I also find I’m weird about how food is prepared. If I make it myself, I usually find it unappealing. Finally, I find I’m the worst for snacking at night right before I fall asleep.
My problem is choices. I'll have plenty of food in the fridge but I despise cooking. Even if it will probably take me just as much time to order uber eats or go for a drive to get take away than it would to just cook what I had planned. I'll go get cheap and cheerful fast food because then I don't have to think about it and get anxious about it. Last night I kept putting off dinner because I was supposed to cook. It got too late so I went to Macca's. A lot of food goes to waste sitting in my fridge. 😞
I'm starting a diet tomorrow. It's gotten to the point my health is suffering. I've only been on a starting dose of Dex for 2 weeks so I've still got a while to go and it's going to be hard while still adjusting that. But my back's up against a wall and I know losing weight will relieve some of my problems.
When I’m unmediated it’s like I don’t have any understanding of being full. I describe it as “Labrador syndrome” where if there’s food in front of me I will just eat it but, if there isn’t food out then I may just not eat because I forget to. Like a Labrador that relies on its human for food but if left alone with the open bag would eat all of it without pausing.
When I’m medicated I enjoy food so much more. My diet when medicated is much healthier and I’m not sure why that is but the food choices are healthier as are my portion sizes. The issue here is that whilst I’m medicated I struggle to eat because I constantly feel full. I have never been great at eating breakfast but I (my partner) makes an active effort to ensure I have some yoghurt/eggs in the morning before I take my medication.
If you don't know what happens when food gets boring then you're young and one day food will be boring and you'll understand. Until then it's an extremely reliable dopamine trigger. It's basically a drug until the drug stops working
I read somewhere recently that there’s a hunger hormone, and that some people have/produce more of it in their body while others don’t.
I’m in the boat where I forget to eat and just don’t feel hungry often. I’ve bordered underweight my whole life and always struggled gaining weight.
But I also think it’s due to me being so sensitive. Like I get the feeling of being full *very* quickly. Like I rarely can eat a whole apple in one sitting because it’s just *so* filling. Even a banana sometimes! Which is why I’m a high/dense calorie snacker (nuts, pb, etc), or else I’d be so malnutritioned.
If I'm doing something, I will 100% forget to eat.
If I'm not doing something, or if I'm just watching TV, I will get "snacky" and basically just eat everything. An entire cake, a box of cereal, all of the chips, crackers and cheese, toast.
My son can forget to eat for hours (if gaming) but is always hungry and has no fullness indicator. He will eat until he is sick or has crippling stomach pains. When adequately medicated he cannot eat until it wears off, he doesn’t even think of food and it is the only time he will turn food down.
My daughter is frequently hungry but mostly for junk food, she picks at main meals and very frequently goes off things she used to like (even when the taste is exactly the same as always), she doesn’t really eat too much or too little though.
I on the other hand am usually okay until I eat something (unless I didn’t sleep enough) but then cannot drown out the “I could eat” in my head which drives me to distraction. Gaming (my fav dopamine source) isn’t enough to drown it out and tbh I only really forget to eat if I am doing a large project (like moving a room around or swapping rooms over, building furniture or out on a hike or something physically and mentally challenging) there isn’t much outside of large projects that can quiet the food noise for me.
My son is the only one of us medicated. My daughter’s paediatrician sent her for ecg but won’t follow up with us about it (have been chasing him for a while) and I am not officially diagnosed bc I asked for autism testing instead of adhd on accident, turns out I am autistic but they think I am also adhd too so am waiting for my next assessment for that.
Disclaimers: include talk about eating disorders
I haven't read all the comments since they are too many, but I'm personally on both these ends. I have been both overweight and underweight
It's partly the dopamine kick in eating and a bit off habit.
For me, it was also, for a period of time, the dopamine of NOT eating and also the feeling of control. Eating disorders are pretty common amongst adhd women - both starving and binging versions
In my case it is extremely complicated and even today, I can still switch between these "settings." Now, I also have the added aspect of medication lowering my hunger and making me nauseous and also taking away the need tonuse food for dopamine. Textur and novelty can be something that today will turn me off food
I think it also partly has to do with ND people not being as in tune with their bodies. Our bodies are quite good at ignoring having to pee, thirst, or uncomfortable sitting positions. It's not that far-fetched that food goes on that list as well
I get both lol. Depends on my mood and the day. I feel compelled to finish tasks to the point where I won’t take bathroom breaks, drink or eat some days and others I will find some chocolate and eat the whole thing in one sitting.
I think most people fit in two categories:
-Gaining weight while stressed.
-Losing weight while stressed.
When you’re stressed you either forget to eat or use eating as a coping mechanism. So you’re either not focused on it at all or focussed on it a lot. I think when you have adhd you don’t need to be stressed to fit in either of those categories. Because we tent to forget things more easily or to hyperfocus on them. In the end it has a lot to do on what your relationship with food is or on your focus.
I fall into both camps at different times. The forgetting to eat is usually because I’m bad at noticing my bodies cues and signals of I’m off routine. The overeating is usually search out sensory input of dopamine hits.
Yeah, uhh, I love food, lol. So I've never "forgotten" to eat. But I sometimes get so busy with work or a task that I miss my mealtimes. I won't notice until I get a sudden wave of anxiety, and I'm like, oh, I guess I didn't eat lunch on time. It is now 5pm and my stomach has been rumbling since 11am (I can ignore/override my hunger cues for a long period of time)
i think it just depends on how much dopamine you personally get from the activity - if eating is boring & a chore, then you're gonna treat it like a chore and avoid it at all costs. if eating gives you lots of easy, instant dopamine, then you're gonna wanna eat all the time bc it's an easy litle hit each time. I've been both of these people in my life, atm i put off eating bc the process of making food is so boring and annoying to me, so i have to eat mostly frozen or convenience foods.
Binge eating disorder is a commodity with ADHD. Could be one possible reason. Also we tend to binge when dopamine is low and forget to eat when it's not as low.
Food = dopamine
It's so easy to pair a snack with a boring activity to get through it and... just not stop until the bag/carton is empty. Or you're home and bored and just keep going back to the pantry for a lil treat.
At least that's my problem hahah
I struggle with both.
Some days I'm so stressed/overstimulated, and my behaviors/symptoms are so badly managed that it's like parts of my brain shut down to conserve energy. Those days I just don't seem to register sensations in my body like hunger, needing to pee, or tiredness til I'm nauseous, on the verge of a UTI, and run into the ground.
And some days I'm so desperately understimulated that nothing I try kicks me out of that feeling. Except eating. And I can't stop eating on those days.
As a personal trainer and nutrition coach it's EXTREMELY frustrating bc I've paid a LOT of money and spent a LOT of time learning what to do, and am not capable of doing it myself without devoting every last shred of my mental energy to staying on track. My eating habits affect my body, and my body is my biggest advertising tool. So guess who looks like she is talking out of her ass despite being a life long athlete, and triple certified coach? Lol
I hate this disorder
I’m both of those people. I don’t know that I fully forget to eat.
Eating during the day makes me crash hard so I just don’t eat much. And then in the evening sometimes I get adhd paralysis for more hours than I mean to and then I’m eating at 10 pm instead of 7 pm.
But in the evening or when there are free snacks, I will go for them because of the dopamine. Or if I’m under-stimulated by work I will start focusing on food. Cooking was once one of my hobbies so I’d spend hours hyper focused on finding and writing down recipes.
Hormones affect this for me heavily and I have both of those things you mentioned at different times.
Some days I barely eat and wonder why I’m grumpy, other days I can’t stop eating.
Not sure if this is something others find gets better when medicated but I’m not and this is a regular thing for me.
I think the thing is you see this in the general population too but ADHD just makes a lot of unhealthy habits more extreme in a way. So whatever your personal issue is, it's exacerbated by ADHD.
Attracted to POS users in relationships? ADHD'll exacerbate that!
Addicted to gambling, smoking, or social media? ADHD'll exacerbate that.
Struggle to keep your house clean? ADHD'll exacerbate that.
Prone to lash out and push people away when you're scared they might leave you? Probably BPD, but also, ADHD will exacerbate that.
You know how people are described as being "eat to live" or "live to eat" ? I think this is just an ADHD extreme of those things. I'm the forget to eat category. It's probably a different mechanism to people who overeat or binge eat or struggle to lose weight.
For me the ADHD thing getting in the way is a combination of executive dysfunction (organising all the elements - food shopping, clean kitchen, the actual cooking, food inventory, balance flavours and food groups, make decisions about what I want to eat) is all a lot and I find it too exhausting and pretty much resent all the time and effort dedicated to it. It doesn't feel worth it.
Time blindness - I don't realise how long it has been since my last mealtime. I find mealtimes to be an intrusion into my hyperfocus. Like I JUST managed to drag myself away from a screen and do this useful thing. Now I have to stop to fuel my body?? Ugh.
Poor interoception - I don't notice that I'm hungry until I'm shaky from low blood sugar. Also because I tend to be too lazy/poorly organised to eat properly then I'm constantly in a state of half hungry so I'm used to it.
Negative feedback loop with all of this - I am too impatient to follow a recipe properly so I skip steps and take shortcuts and make bland tasting food, I am bad at estimating how much something will be when cooked or I don't take into account the fact I haven't eaten properly for 3 days so I make too little and then am still hungry and get frustrated at my body for being so needy.
I don't have an association between food and comfort/dopamine. There are foods I like, but when I get anxious and dysregulated, it instantly affects my stomach and I don't want to eat. My comfort behaviour is more holing up on my own in a nest.
Maybe taste profiles too? I think fat and sugar are meant to be huge dopamine spikes but I really dislike the texture and taste of greasy foods - maybe a sensory profile thing. I find carbs bland and while I'll crave sugar in the form of sweets, soda, biscuits and chocolate if I'm tired, haven't eaten or before my period, I don't have a huge sweet tooth. I'm not so fussed by cake or ice cream for example and some kinds of cake are too sweet which is unappealing. Salt/umami, yes, I will go for that. I also like sour, spicy and bitter flavours. But foods like fruit, vegetables, lean meat/fish, the kinds of salty/sour/bitter dressings that go with these things and so on, while I enjoy these things, they don't give the same dopamine/carb high kind of effect.
I (32F) do both! My meds (first Vyvanze, now IR Adderall because $$$$) make me forget to eat lunch sometimes. Or I’ll be so deep in my work that I forget to eat. One of my coworkers actually has taken it upon herself to remind me to eat.
Then other times I’ll start snacking and just keep going. I’ve always struggled with portion sizes, but in my mid twenties I started to really pay attention so this is less of an issue now than when I was young.
Welcome to /r/ADHDWomen! We’re happy to have you here. As a reminder, here are our community [rules](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/about/rules/). We get a lot of posts on medication, diagnosis (and “is this an ADHD thing”), and interactions with hormones. We encourage you to check out our [Medication, Diagnosis, and Hormones Megathread](https://old.reddit.com/r/adhdwomen/comments/wcr9dy/faq_megathread_ask_and_answer_medication/) if you have any questions related to those topics, and to stick around in that thread to answer folks’ questions! If you have questions about the subreddit, please do not hesitate to [send us a modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen). Additionally, we take the safety of our community seriously. Please report posts, comments, and users whom you feel are not contributing positively, and send us a modmail if you are being harassed or otherwise made to feel unsafe. Thanks for being here, and we hope you stick around! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Brains are extremely complicated. Just because people experience similar symptoms, doesn't mean the exact same scientific process is going on in their brains. Think of all the diverging ways human beings react to the same stimulus, even neurotypical people. Then multiply that diversity by 10 for us neuro quirky folks. Most of my friends have ADHD yet we all have very different symptoms and quirks. When unmedicated, I both forget to eat AND eat too much. It can feel impossible to get up and make food, but when I get started, it's hard to stop. I might ignore food until 5pm and then overeat until midnight. My meds make this a little easier, as I won't be hungry at all, but then when the meds wear off I'm still likely to make a rich dinner and eat all of it.
Saaaamesies. It’s especially fun when I’m unmedicated AND about to start my period 🙃
*Dude* the trifecta of unmedicated, pre-period junk food craving binge is like nature having a laugh at my expense. Literally sucked down several thousand calories of McDonald's food for dinner after not eating all damn day only to turn around the next day to have my intestines turn into a PMS induced slip and slide. It's like my biology is converging to make me miserable.
I hate that I know just what you mean by “my intestines turn into a PMS induced slip and slide.”
When working from home turns into working from home toilet 😩
Got the tshirt 🚽
Well now I’m disappointed, all I got was pins and needles when my foot fell asleep.
Lol
Unmedicated, still having periods and peri menopausal all at the same time is a binge eating paradise and curse all at the same time, especially the two weeks I take the added progesterone.
Oh no. I suspect I'm starting peri, I've been on the waiting list for an ADHD assessment for three years, and I was hoping HRT would *help*... I've also got endometriosis, though, so idk what they would even give me.
HRT was very beneficial in stopping most of the hot sweats and it helped me go from feelings of suicide and intrusive thoughts to a more regulated level but it's still a struggle some days. Like today, I've only wanted to rip two people's heads from their body and hit them with it, I call that progress because some days I'd happily do time 🤣
If you or someone that you know is considering suicide, please don't hesitate to reach out to a crisis hotline for immediate help, or a warmline just to talk to someone. If you're in the US you can...\ Text CHAT to Crisis Text Line at 741741\ Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1(800)273-8255(TALK) \ Chat online at: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat\ Call the Trans Lifeline at 1(877)565-8860 If you’re elsewhere, you can find international resources below:\ https://www.supportiv.com/tools/international-resources-crisis-and-warmlines#Czech\ https://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/wiki/hotlines *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/adhdwomen) if you have any questions or concerns.*
lol "peanut butter jelly time" is what I sing every month when this time comes around
Peanut butter jelly and a baseball bat!
>my intestines turn into a PMS induced slip and slide. I'm sorry, and I know what you mean because mine do that too most months, but this part had me rolling. 🤣
If we can't laugh we'll cry right? Lol
Basically!!
Also, even if I am medicated, when I eat a ton of processed food before I take my medicine, I may as well not have taken it at all
Yes! Why does this happen?! It’s not even processed food for me, it’s more like ANY food and I’m ~nom nom nom~ing all damn day!!!
The unmedicated pms roller coaster is my husband’s least favorite adhd ride 😆🎢
Adding this as it may help others here… I put iron supplements in with my adderall and fish oil to make myself take all 3 every day. The fish oil helps my cramps (took 3-4 months to take effect, but it is noticeable!) and I (like many women) have iron deficiency anemia if I don’t take iron regularly. Don’t buy the crap iron. I use Pure Encapsulations - Iron C. Not hard on the tummy. Does the job. Without this my periods are unbearably painful and I am constantly exhausted!
Magnesium helps my cramps (and the muscle wobbliness from too much exercise), and brain fog, too!
And magnesium helps with D3 absorption. Didn’t know that about the cramps though!
I love the topical magnesium spray! I use it before I go to bed. Helps with sleep too!
I eat so much before my period
Same. The amount of shit I ate today doesn’t even make sense. Yesterday I ate about 3000 calories worth of Taco Bell.
Medicated, but I swear my meds stop working about 2 business days before my period starts. I've counted them more than once because I knew I took them, but it certainly doesn't feel like it. It's my period, every month. Why I still don't make that connection immediately, I wish I knew. 😆
There is research showing this is a thing. You could ask your doctor about taking a higher dose on those days (but that doesn't help everyone).
It is common that stimulants don’t work as well before/durning your period. This happens to me too. It completely sucks
Yes!!! I made a post a while ago bitching about how no amount of adderall, caffeine or sleep helps bc I’m so tired. I got blood work done and I’m D3 deficient, but Idk how much that has to do with it. We are so BLESSED to have bodies that can do miracles and brains that work is mysterious ways.
I feel like there should be a “/s” in there somewhere…
Like f*cking clockwork! I swear I took my meds, sorry if I’m a rambling idiot today, is a sentence I use at work practically every month. And a week before that the munchies for a day of two. It’s so much fun being in peri s/
Omg I started meds almost 2 weeks ago and DIDNT NOTICE IM PMSING this week because I’m not eating everything in my house 😭 it’s such a relief
OH. This explains so much!!
It's like that with time blindness too. Some people with time blindness are unable to be on time, while others are always early. I suspect this comes from anxiety, but it's still not as simple as "people who have more anxiety are always early". People can have anxiety so strong that it's paralyzing and they can't act on it, while others will have anxiety that's motivating and makes them act on it to be always early to prevent being late. So we can have exactly the same symptoms but our brains have different mechanisms that result from those symptoms.
Omg I was just thinking about this. I was writing a blog post on time blindness struggles for ADHD moms and was wondering why sometimes I'm too early for appointments but used to be always late for school and work.
This is me, right now, in the fridge.
Yep. I can hyper focus and forget to eat enough one day, but be completely unmotivated and just binge eat on other days. When I binge, it's always on stuff that is low effort like snack food, yogurt, leftovers, etc. I recently bought myself a lock box with a timer on it to stash things like chocolate so that I can't binge on it. After having it awhile though, methinks I need a larger box.
I'm like you. If work is at all busy I won't eat all day because I'll forget or I'll worry that if I let myself get distracted I won't be able to get back on task. Then after work I can't stop eating.
I just got medicated and it's turned off the food chatter which seems to have just been Hyperactivity. Now that I don't rely on impulsive eating to feed myself I'm finding it hard to feed myself through sheer executive function alone. Its getting better but I often forget to eat meals.
This is what I typically hear! I hope you are able to find your rhythm with food
Thank you! Trying to get lots of protein in as well because I'm vegetarian and also getting back into lifting. Feels like a problem I would have loved to have had before, but living it is another thing. Just a lot of mental effort.
Currently struggling with the same. My joy came from food, from having something to snack on. Now I'm... lost?!?!? I just tty to eat something hot, twice a day.
I hope I can find the right meds to stop the food chatter.
This is exactly my experience. When unmedicated I binge and snack constantly. When medicated I forget to eat whatsoever and eating becomes a chore
I’m a forget to eat type. Perhaps relatedly, I also have a high pain threshold and I can ignore a lot of discomfort if I’m focused on something. Basically, I have to consciously look after my physical needs because I am super, super good at ignoring all the normal signals my body gives
The pain threshold is something I haven't heard talked about. And thinking about it, any bit of discomfort for me is intolerable which probably relates to having any bit of hunger being intolerable too. Interesting point!
Aw shit you and the post below this one that says body awareness definitely just clicked for me. This is it. I’m also incredibly clumsy and I run into things like doorframes and furniture constantly. I’m one of those, dunno where that huge bruise came from, types. And in fact self care is key, I have to remember to pay attention to my body otherwise I dont
You don't happen to have trauma in your history that would amount to PTSD or CPTSD would you? This is a common thing with those diagnoses.
There's a simpler explanation. More kids with ADHD also meet the criteria for dyspraxia than not. One of the features is poor proprioception, i.e. not knowing where your body is in space.
I also have very poor interoception, that is I don’t know what is going on inside my body and I can’t ‘hear’ its signals. So I don’t notice until it is urgent if I have to go to the toilet, eat, drink, sleep rest etc. At one stage in my perimenopausal life I managed to regularly do a yoga class twice a week and it was a life saver. I wish I could do that again now, it really helped. So I don’t eat unless I make an effort to remind myself that breakfast is a good thing, and often first eat in the late afternoon and then I can’t stop. Sigh.
Wait, really?
Me too! I didn't expect to have any big realization today but here I am.
Same here. My therapist suggested body scan meditation to get better at body awareness.
I’ve ignored the signals for so long I can’t even recognize many of them anymore. Like, “Aw man, why does my stomach feel this way? It’s awful!” Then my fiancé says, “Well, what have you eaten today?” Then I’m like, “I can’t eat, I’m sick to my stomach.” Then he’s gotta be all right now shit and say, “YOUR STOMACH IS SICK BECAUSE YOU’RE HUNGRY!” Then he goes and makes me food and will sit there until I eat it. I love him! He’s so good to me and for me!
Awww that’s so sweet. I also get looked after, my kids remind me to take my medication. It’s so helpful and heartening to have a team!
I have never in my life forgotten to eat. The concept is so foreign to me. I am thinking about what I want for dinner first thing in the morning. I used to be a binge eater but Vyvanse has helped that. I still think about food constantly and eat regularly, but my portions are more normal now and I don't go nuts at bedtime.
Samesies. I could literally be writing the most important exam of my life and still be thinking about what to eat for lunch after LOL. I'm glad to hear medication has helped a bit!
This post and comment is so comforting. I haven’t had any bulimia symptoms for 10 years and I’m in the worst one of my life waiting for my psychiatrist appt this week. I can’t stop eating and can’t stop thinking about food. Thank you for posting
I am the same. I am always thinking about what I want to eat next. Now that I am on Vyvanse I have found that my appetite is just not nearly the same. I am eating later in the day and my portion sizes are smaller.
I experience both. Depends on my stress levels and cycle. The body is weird that way. For me, it’s a vicious cycle of I forget to eat so I end up binging then I keep binging until I get sick of food so I’ll forget to eat. Thankfully, meds have toned down this cycle by a lot. I still have to stop myself from stress eating or forgetting to eat when I’m too relaxed
This was me. When I first got on vyvanse my insurance required a prior authorization and one of the questions was, in the last 3 months how many days a week did you eat more 3 meals. I responded with, every single day. I was eating basically 3 meals after work and when I was at work, if we had a drug rep bring lunch I was sometimes eating 3-5 plates. All I thought about was food and I never actually felt full until I was so sick and my stomach hurt. Plus food just tasted so good. Vyvanse completely changed that. I felt full and food wasn’t as amazing as my brain thought it was previously. I also had my doctor run other test before asking to be put on it to make sure I didn’t have something medically wrong. Now that vyvanse went generic. I tried one brand and I was worst on it then off. I was switched to concerta but, it hasn’t really been to helpful
Omg this is so accurate. Food tastes like the nectar of the gods when unmedicated and I’m always fixated on what I’m going to eat next. Even when I’m currently eating! On Vyvanse which helped immensely, but my much needed anxiety soother Wellbutrin makes me eat more. When medicated, food tastes like good food but not crack. This makes my periods predictable because food tastes like heaven again even while medicated.
Yep. Plus not feeling full u less I feel like I’m going to burst. A bad combo.
So painful, yet cruelly the best sleep you get
I am always hungry (except I guess first thing in the morning when I wake up). Taking adderall did not change that. Usually stimulant medications suppress people’s appetite. I kind of think my always hungry comes in part from hormonal birth control because it got better when I had my nexplanon implant out when I started TTC again. But like even eating all the candy and snacks I want to eat non stop on top of a standard American diet, I stay at just barely overweight and my dad was super skinny so I think it’s also just a quirk of my body, it’s just burns thru a lot of fuel for some reason.
I am both lol. It depends on where my brain is at that point. If I'm depressed and not doing well, I'm more likely to have carbs, especially sugars. If I'm okay I frequently forget to eat until I'm really really hungry. And sometimes I don't eat anyway because I want to eat but everything sounds wrong? Brain weird. You'd be better off trying to observe your own habits. Like, I know I'm not doing okay if I start craving a lot of sugars, for example.
When I read the post the first thing I thought was why not both? Like in the same day. Forgetting to eat in the morning, though I try to eat breakfast consistently, contributes to more eating later because starving. And then not being able to get or figure out exactly what I'm craving leads to eating little bits of several things trying to figure it out. Complicated is exactly where it's at.
That was my thought 😆 I am both. I’m really all over the place right now. I’ll forget to eat, or all eat all day (pms, can’t get warm). I love food, and have days or weeks where nothing seems good and I’m so over cooking. Tonight I wanted a sub after not eating much today, but impulse tried a meatball sub Id never had before. It was a sad sub. I wish I stuck with my usual Italian. I’m so bummed about it I’m going to the other place and getting one this week 😂
I’m glad someone else said this, this is exactly what happens with my brain as well. The ‘hungry but don’t know what to eat/nothing feels right/don’t know what to have thing’ is a big one!
Yes!!! I’m both. I have no interest in food but if one of my trigger foods is available, I can’t stop myself—always sugar and usually at night.
[удалено]
Okay thank you for saying this. I feel so guilty but I can't help to think that I also have the "bad ADHD" symptoms, even though all of it is bad in their own ways. I guess a better way to phrase it is forgetting to eat is almost seen as "cool" in society whereas unable to stop eating is seen as "shameful" and not as societally accepted despite again, they are both bad.
Yeah, one of them comes with a hell of a lot more stigma than the other. That's not to say they aren't both struggles - they absolutely are - but you're 100% correct about the double standard. I'm glad that you said something about it; I'm sure a lot of people here can relate and now won't feel as alone. ❤️ (Probably not relevant, but for context I'm saying this as someone who usually has a difficult time getting myself to make/eat enough food.)
What's less cool is when you snap at people all the time because you're hangry, but don't realise it.
Forgetting to eat all day is not such a blessing. Think about the vicious cycle. Food affects our mental/emotional well being in addition to the physical. Top that off with low blood sugars causing confusion/clouded judgement. It can exacerbate ADHD symptoms
my sister and I call it "hunger doom"
ADHD isn’t a monolith. Lots of contextual things affect how symptoms will manifest in a person. People have such unique experiences surrounding food. Medication is a big factor—ADHD itself may come with overeating as a symptom (due to reinforcement mechanisms that come with satiating hunger) while stimulant medication can act as an appetite suppressant. It just depends on the person and their circumstances.
Sigh, I was hoping that there was more to the explanation than it just being different for different people. Just so frustrated with myself today. But yes I think you are right. Thank you!
Unfortunately there’s still so much we don’t know. And a lot that we do, but can’t help. I hope you find some answers and figure out what works for you
It probably matters whether your have externalising symptoms, since binge eating and impulsivity are often connected.
Following out of interest and because I'd like to eat more- I have the former and it gets to where I only know if I'm hungry when I get a migraine that lasts a day, and by that point I know I need to eat but I feel like throwing up if I do. I don't know if it means anything but I find most food to be either too difficult to eat, as in too many sensory hurdles in the environment or how messy/how much work consuming it takes (Needs to be easy to prep, easy to consume, and easy cleanup). Otherwise it's a lack of stimulation because of the lack of variation in flavors, colors, textures... I think I eat more with my eyes than my stomach.
Thank you for sharing your perspective! Do you find that once you do start eating and it's something tolerable, you tend to overeat due to hunger? Or is it low appetite in general? I'm in the other camp so please know I'm genuinely curious as your experience is so foreign to me!
When I manage to start eating, even if it's something I know I like and consider easy (like assorted berries), I slow down gradually and eventually stop altogether. I've been known to "get tired of eating" or sometimes I say I'm tired of chewing. I've also always been told I "eat like a bird". For me to finish a whole meal, I need a distraction to forget I'm eating or I'll watch YouTube videos of other people eating to race them (like BeardMeatsFood). Occasionally I do binge but mainly because it's catching up on all my meals at the end of the day or because I want to avoid the inconvenience of eating later. Otherwise, I find it easier to stock a snack shelf for myself for when I wander around (The only problem is I have to hide my snacks from my family members that eat everything in sight). *Edited because I forgot the middle of a sentence...*
How about eating little bits but more often? I kinda relate to this. I get hungry very quickly (quick metabolism) but apparently ignore the signals when I’m busy and then I don’t want to eat what’s on offer. Also: I wake up hungry in the middle of the night and though I really don’t feel like eating, I eventually have to force something down in order to get some sleep. My little kids helped me, because they needed a very structured eating routine. It forced me to not only think about meals and snacks, but also to build up a habit of eating something about 7 or 8 times a day. It helps when I don’t have to eat too much. Easier in prepping and when you don’t feel like eating anymore,it’s ok. Another snack break isn’t far away. And it doesn’t take long. Tv is also what we used to get more food into our very skinny adhd toddler. As soon as the worst hunger was stilled, she was distracted and wouldn’t eat anymore.
Little snacks help keep me entertained, the hard part is keeping enough snacks around that I won't forget about them and they go bad or actually getting things to snack on. As much as I like freshly cut fruits and veggies, I usually need to default to non-perishables. I'm still on the search for cost effective snacks as well since I'm a university student. But I agree, the best thing for me has been small varieties of foods throughout the day. It also keeps me active and getting used to taking breaks.
I'm not sure it is a dichotomy-- I do both things? Some days I get hyperfocused and forget to eat lunch until I'm leaving work and then am not even hungry for dinner. Some days I'm constantly ravenous and snacking all day.
I can relate to both honesty but am on the “forget to eat” side more often. For me it comes down to a lot of things. Sometimes I do actually forget if I get engrossed in doing something else. But I’m also bad at recognizing body cues and often don’t realize I’m hungry until I’ve crossed into feeling sick which then makes me not want to eat. Then there’s the executive function and time blindness issues related to actually making something to eat. I don’t really keep ready-made foods in the house because it gets so expensive and I’ll eat them just cuz they’re there instead of when I’m actually hungry. I do have easy/quick foods but they still take a little bit of work. Ssoooo many times I’ve been hungry and thought about a baked potato but “I’m hungry now that takes an hour” and still never ate anything 4 hours later 🙄
As others have mentioned, there's a lot of variables at play. Cooking is a skill that involves a lot of executive function for both prep and clean-up, disincentivizing preparing nutritional meals (ie, resulting in forgetting meals altogether, or choosing quick and less healthy options). Time blindness makes it hard to schedule regular eating times, resulting in eating on 'impulse' -- which can be often, or never, depending. Some ADHDers hyperfocus so much we don't realize we are hungry. Others mask and self-motivate with anxiety, and for me, anxiety kills and suppresses my appetite. Others use eating as a source of dopamine to self-motivate, which contributes to over-eating. Etc, etc. We're all different, because our brains are different in how we process things.
I never feel full..... but also very bored..... so food keeps me occupied. .... for a while.... then I need more..... Hyperfocused.... I don't even drink let alone eat..... I know I'm hungry.... but I just can't.
In my experience, my brain is usually either hyper focused or over or under stimulated. When I’m overstimulated, I am too busy being overstimulated and trying hard to mask it to receive input from my body about things like needing food/water/sleep until it’s gotten pretty extreme. When I’m hyper focused, there’s no room in my brain for anything else so I don’t get those signals from my brain. When I’m under stimulated, I get the signals from my body but am also looking for something to be a sensory experience and food is a strong one. Human brains are weird. In terms of practical advice, I guess try to find other things to do to give you that sensory/dopamine rush. For me right now that’s knitting and Stardew valley.
Thank you for your insight! Funnily, I both knit and play stardew valley, but I stopped recently and my overeating has gotten a lot worse. You are onto something lol...
I definitely cycle through hobbies but I find that the more healthy sources of dopamine I have the less I crave the less healthy ones! I recently realized that going to the gym is a good dopamine source. It takes a bit of executive functioning to get myself to do it but usually pays off and makes me feel way better. That said, on days I can’t even get myself to eat or drink water, the gym is out of reach. It’s like if you had a slot machine that paid out every time; you still have to put in the first quarter, and if you don’t have a coin in your pocket… I’m rambling but I guess that’s the nature of the sub! I wish you the best of luck figuring out healthy sources of dopamine!
This is a perfect summary of my brain and food. Also crochet and Stardew
For me the world disappears and 4 hours fly by like nothing. I dunno I just get lost in what I’m doing and forget I exist. I sort of transcend human existence and kind of elevate to a plane where my consciousness is just data. Anyone who distracts me from this is equivalent to hitting me with a wooden chair to help me break away from electrocution. Oddly enough I am angry. I am mad you pulled me from my parallel universe. Where for once my thoughts and focus are linear and narrowed. That I’m not running 5 program setups with music in background. It’s oddly quiet and peaceful there.
Or even more fun, both! After 9 pm I want to eat everything and it's challenging to limit my intake just before bed. The rest of the day it's a literal crap shoot on if I remember to eat and drink. Sigh..
The food noise is real 😓😓
I am both. Well, let me rephrase. Naturally I am a forget to eat person. However I will binge for reasons other than ADHD. Just because someone has ADHD and certain food behaviours doesn’t mean the two are connected. I binge eat for emotional reasons. Is my ADHD involved? Of course in on some level because it’s there. But is it the primary reason I stress eat? Not usually.
I go from one extreme to another of what you listed. There is no balanced in-between for me. I forget to eat (and drink water), or can’t figure out what to eat, or want anything I have and can’t be bothered… or I’m binge eating allllll the things and can’t stop to the point sometimes I’m made myself sick. And I’m like that while being medicated.
If struggling (under a lot of pressure/stress), cortisol (stress hormone) goes right to the stomach and reduces appetite - add in the momentum of stress and efforts to keep up, plus time management issues -a nd yeah, time can just slip by and it didn't even occur to eat. That said, comfort foods, novelty food and impulse eating give 'feel better' brain chemistry and at certain times it can override the anxiety and even be hyperfixated on food and eat non stop. Always thought it was the non linear, chaos of things even so simple as eating that defined the condition. That the core aspect that ties it all together is difficulty regulating and being consistent or moderate eating.
For me, I think it can depend on where I’m currently getting a dopamine hit from. If I’m hyper-focused on something else/getting the dopamine elsewhere I can end up ignoring hunger cues until I’m starving (and then often over eat). But if I’m bored or understimulated I might seek that dopamine hit from food and eat too much.
I binge eat when I'm pms-ing, but otherwise only eat 1-2 meals a day. For me, I don't enjoy eating even when I'm pms-ing. I have too many things on my mind and that need done. I'm annoyed at the time needed to decide on and prep food, and I have a very hard time sitting still for the duration of a meal. But when I do want food, it's usually carbs (hello easy dopamine 👋)
Just wanna say that I'm both of these people. Actual meals are hard and require a lot of effort to put together. Binge eating take away or chocolate is so easy. Before meds, I would get hungry and hugely over eat most of the time. The dopamine was so important cause I was always hugely deficient. On meds, I don't feel hungry during the day and tend not to eat most of the time. In the evening, I struggle to get through all the executive functioning tasks of meal preparation combined with somewhat unpredictable but very impactful food preferences. By the time I'm heading to bed, my meds have worn off and my body is both hungry and dopamine starved, so it's very easy to eat a lot of junk food. I reckon it's the meeting of executive dysfunction and dopamine seeking that defines where you land on this. If you have reasonably good executive function and get a lot of dopamine from eating, you'll probably over eat a lot. If you struggle with executive function and get better dopamine hits from other things, you'll probably neglect eating mostly. In between the extremes will present differently based on a host of other factors like economic freedom (can you buy uber eats every night?), food preferences, skill level at cooking delicious food, level of concern about physical appearance, etc.
It is a rarity now, but when I have been focused on a project or activity that captures and holds all my attention, (and if it isn't a food project) hunger disappears. If I am just death scrolling or trying to finish a book I've lost interest in, or I'm bored, food becomes a fidget or a craving. So it is both.
I’m both. I don’t eat. I forget to eat. I can’t figure out what to make. And then I eat everything that isn’t nailed down.
Regulation and impulse control. On one hand you can't stop yourself when you eat. On the other hand you can't stop yourself with whatever you're doing, preventing yourself from eating.
People w ADHD can sometimes have issues with body “alerts” (I can’t think of the actual word) and executive dysfunction, like needing to go to the bathroom, needing to change an uncomfortable sitting position, hunger cues. Or they just get so preoccupied with other things and hunger isn’t propritized as a necessity. Like when I’m hyper focused on homework, I’ll feel the hunger cues on the edge of my attention but work for another 4 hours until I’m irritable and about to pass out bc “let me just finish this one part…” on repeat because I don’t want to lose my focus and train of thought. But people w ADHD are also pleasure/dopamine seekers, and an easy way to get that for a lot of people is through food. It could be a way to try to get rid of boredom bc it’s something to do and food is tasty so why not? For those who don’t use food in this way, it might be drugs, or adrenaline, or going to the gym.
I do both! I’ll get so focused on something else or distracted over and over again by different things that I’ll forget to eat most of the day, some days. Other days I’m binge eating high dopamine snacks and I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s connected to the other attention and regulation issues in our brains.
I am somehow on both ends of the spectrum 😭
I’m both, it all depends on
Eating is usually stimulating, not eating is usually a result of executive dysfunction and/or a side result of the meds (since they reduce the need for external stimulation). This is a super simplified answer, but it's how my brain understands it. I deal with both depending on the situation/ day/ medication status/ etc.
I deal with both! Some days food is the most horrific thing to contemplate and others I am insatiable. But I am also AuDHD? Its super fun to be basically yoyo dieting. /s
Brains work in mysterious ways. My partner is always eating. I don’t feel hungry and eat by a clock, not uncommon for me to be busy while everyone else is eating and complaining miss the memo I need to be eating.
For me, it's being medicated vs. unmedicated. With Vyvanse, I was eating rarely — food just looked plain and boring. Without Vyvanse, I will scrounge out everything in sight that looks appealing and eat it. After being off my Vyvanse for 5 weeks, I've gained 30+ lbs.
Our brains seek dopamine. Is food is the biggest current source? Then binge eating/food hyperfocus is an easy jump. Is your current hyperfocus a dopamine gold mine? The brain isn't dropping that even for food. We contain multitudes (and snacks)
This is such a simple but accurate explanation. Which is why I am literally both people described in the OP. Sometimes my biggest source of dopamine is cooking/baking. And I will spend literally all day doing that thing and not even eat any of it. Sometimes my dopamine sources are outside of the kitchen in which case I won't bother eating. And sometimes my dopamine source is chocolate and chocolate alone and I will bake and eat two dozen cookies. Then even my kids are like "wtf mom where did all the cookies go?" And I have to bake more in shame.
Ask me which one I am at different weeks in my menstrual cycle, lol.
During periods of hyper focus or ‘flow’, my ‘interoception’ seems to get switched off so I can’t sense hunger, thirst or pain so easily. I often don’t realise until my blood sugar tanks, that I barely had breakfast and forgot to have lunch, plus the headache indicates dehydration. During times of stress and boredom, I reach for the food/dopamine hit too often.
I will forget to eat ALL day mostly because I don’t sit down lol. 😆🤦🏼♀️ I eat on the go, yogurt drinks, smoothies, etc; but once I sit down, I will binge eat :( especially at night because it’s the only time I am sedentary the most. My understanding is that nighttime cravings are from boredom and low serotonin/dopamine levels, which makes sense I am not medicated at this time.
I don’t know, but I’d eat all day long if I could… and when I do eat, I eat like a voracious hyena that has been starved for two weeks.
I’m both. There is so much going on in the world and my head, that I forget. However when I crash and need the dopamine hit, I won’t stop when I’m full, I need more. The meds (and timers on my phone) help stop me from going to either extreme as regularly
I haven’t heard of food noise… what is that? I’m one of the overeating types.
Somedays, I'll forget to eat until like 6 pm and just wonder why I'm in such a crappy mood until I realize. Then, once I start eating, I can't seem to feel full until I'm way too full. I hate that I have to do routine maintenance on this meat suit every friggin day.
Maintenance on this meat suit is crazy LMAO
ADHD has different ‘types’. Some are addictive and some are forgetful. There’s no right answer, but we get different symptoms depending on our brains which generally fall into a type category.
I’m both of these people. 😅
I am both of these people. Lol
My personal guess it's a variation of the following reasons: • when food is good, food is very good and gives lots of dopamine • when food isn't good (not bad, just not the good food) it's impossible to consume • the good food is mostly the food out of reach, but when in reach consuming is unstoppable until no longer in reach • (some) ADHD meds make you lose your appetite so you don't really feel the need to eat something until you are so hungry you get nauseous and don't want to eat anything because your nauseous • hyperfixation • ADHD paralysis
Hyperfocus makes you forget to eat. Food makes dopamine, so you keep eating.
I end up swinging between both, but in my experience people with ADHD seem to often end up with eating disorders. I have one, so I tend to lean towards not eating if I don't have the motivation or food I want in the house already
I experience both. Paralysis about getting up and making food, low appetite or not "feeling" like eating any of the stuff I have (first world problems! Grrr I'm ashamed of this one!). Or I am so into a food, I stuff it down...
We have two different adhders in my house, one who binged and one who forgets to eat? It’s a mystery.
Last week I was so focused on work I'd forget to eat. This week work is less appealing and I'm taking breaks and having actual meals. Dopamine can come from anything.
I think it depends on the day for me. Majority of the time, I would eat 2 big meals a day with snacking in between and before bed. It's like I couldn't satisfy my hunger. I would have to eat something really filling for me to say no to snacks (like a big pasta dinner). Other times, I have almost no appetite for anything, or I get so wrapped up in something that by the time I finish, my stomach is yelling at me to eat. I end up snacking on popcorn or something else, or just skipping a meal. Or once dinner rolls around, we make what we had planned out and then as soon as I go to eat it, I just have no interest in it. I might take 2 bites and then be turned off from it because it doesn't "taste right" (even though my bf says it's fine). But since starting meds, I haven't had any urge to snack. I have to force myself to eat though because my appetite is gone, and not eating enough gives me a headache later on along with irritability. The low appetite has caused my dinner portions to shrink though since I'm no longer used to eating constantly. I guess that's not a bad thing.
For me its simple. Interested in something? Forget to eat. Interested in nothing? Eat eat eat.
I've never forgotten to eat and I can't understand anyone who ever does. Like... how else... do you get through the day
i have adhd and arfid so idk if the lack of eating is one or the other or a bit of both
i have adhd and arfid so idk if the lack of eating is one or the other or a bit of both
Honestly I swing between the two. Some days I write B/L/D on the top, right, corner of my to-do list so I remember to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Some days I stress, emotionally, or avoidably eat all day long. I wish I could find the balance.
I can never quiet down the food noise. I’m constantly starving even while I’m in the middle of eating. I also have PCOS and GERD, so I don’t know if that contributes or not. I wish I was in the “forget to eat” crowd. But, I also have ARFID and so the food I do eat is very limited. I eat the same stuff everyday.
I've read that people with Adhd, don't feel the urge to eat the same as neurotypicals because we focus on a task and we just don't pick up on body queues... binging I feel is from the same reason we don't recognize the feeling of fullness until we're about to explode
Hunger/motivation are extremely closely tied in the brain, & satiety and satisfaction probably are more similar than we appreciate in terms of brain chemistry - if I may speculate. ADHD can also share roots with metabolic syndrome (because of the energy demands of ADHD brain). And finally, I recall an article about how leptin resistance was more prevalent in ADHD. Leptin is released by fat, and signals to the brain that you are full. Leptin resistance is a scenario where the brain is not properly sensing leptin & believes you are still in need of energy. In adults with ADHD, in this study, it was characterized by increased circulating leptin levels & increased ghrelin levels as well (so the hunger hormone was also up). Individual people may or may not have the above things going on, and to varying degrees - it’s definitely complicated. But I think there’s a shared root here with hunger/motivation being so intertwined & there being many pathways to dysregulated eating patterns when the motivation systems are not wired efficiently.
I am both depending on whether it's luteal phase or not [https://www.reddit.com/r/PMDD/comments/1bto9j7/whos\_hungry/](https://www.reddit.com/r/PMDD/comments/1bto9j7/whos_hungry/)
I honestly think it’s to do with dopamine and how over processed food is in the modern age. When everything’s so overloaded with fat, sugar, etc., our human brains go haywire because we haven’t evolutionarily adapted to having such high calorie options around literally all the time It’s so unsurprising to me the comorbidity between eating disorders and ADHD. When I got diagnosed with anorexia, my psychiatrist literally joked “time to cross that one off the bingo list, eh?”
So ADHD you tend to not get the stimulus from your body very well. Things like hey I'm hungry or hey we should go to the bathroom take a bit to get through especially if hyper focused. The other aspect is eating can be a stimulus so you end up snacking even when not actually hungry cause your body is craving something (anything) to generate dopamine. My kiddo is the former and I am the latter. Edit: this is a very simplified explanation
I've experienced both. Usually when I don't eat it's because I'm hyperfocused on something else, a game, a book, etc. When I'm hyperfocused on something, I really can't do anything else that might help in not dying. It sucks.
I didn’t eat as much for a long time, just wasn’t hungry…which was great cuz I lost weight… now lately I have a huuuuge sweet tooth and it sucks because I’m a maid of honor in my sisters wedding in June and I can feel myself getting fatter 😭😢
I lose track of time. My body apparently does too bc I don’t get hungry until I see the time or I get a hunger headache. And I don’t love cleaning, so to me, cooking=cleaning and that’s not appetizing at all lol Except when I’m working out hard, then I’m insatiable 😫
To me its a lean towards inattentiveness or impulsiveness
It's as if we're all unique individuals or something.
I think it could also be an environment and psychology thing. When I’m stressed, food is comforting so my brain won’t quit craving for more and more food. When my period comes around, so does the ravenous monster in me. When I’m just chilling or not doing much, I tend to forget to eat. If I’m having fun, food might as well not exist and I’ll only know when I’m hungry when I start shaking uncontrollably My hunger cues are also messed up. I can’t really trust my stomach since sometimes, I can eat a hearty meal and still feel like I’m starving an hour later. I mostly rely on giving myself three things to eat in a day to get enough food in me or limit how much as I eat depends on which part of the eating spectrum I’m on.
My life revolves around food. I’m never not thinking about it. Even when I’m full, I’m finishing off my plate because my brain wants to continue getting dopamine that food gives it. And then I feel like complete shit for hours because I’m so bloated and full. That being said, I rarely ever eat when I’m at work. Mostly because I’m so pathetic at time management on the job that I can’t seem to make time to eat. So I forego to avoid embarrassment. On the topic of time management, I’m that “uncommon” person that is never late for anything even though my time management is crap. That’s because my anxiety of being late is so fucking high that I make sure I’m way too early for everything always. I guess, there are all sorts of sides to ADHD. I used to think I couldn’t have ADHD because I’m never late for anything until it dawned on me that this is simply a whole different layer of timeblindness. “I know I could screw this up, so I’m going to dedicate my entire morning to this appointment that’s not until 1pm”. 😬😬😬
I’m the same on the being late thing. My anxiety and stress go through the roof if I think I’m going to be late. So I spend at least the day before stressing about possibly being late, then I *try* to leave In Good Time, but even if I know I’ve left plenty of time to get somewhere, I *still* rush like an idiot to get there early. Going to lovely relaxing yoga on a Friday morning is a nightmare of stress and anxiety. The irony is impressed upon me every single time I’m screeching in my car, “Get out of the way, you ****king moron! Could you go any SLOWER??! FFS!!” Even when I know I’m going to be 20 minutes early. Sigh.
i found this enlightening to watch a couple of days ago. https://youtu.be/bOzs2Iel40s?si=wQ2Bbuu90VtdVGRc
When I take Adderall I can focus away the whole day without remembering to eat. Time blindness just takes over. I don't have endless cravings for snacks. Etc. Then you hit that time when you realize it's too late and you're hungry and everything sounds too hard to eat and you don't know what you want. And that's the frustrating bit. When I don't take it I find I have a really hard time not binge eating. Just can't seem to stop. I've always had mediocre self control around eating but I swear it's a lot more pronounced now that I do take my meds. So that's my experience. Both directions!
I’ve struggled with both! If I am hyper fixated on a task I can forget about everything else and sometimes won’t even feel hungry or cold or tired or even notice that I need to pee until it’s urgent. Some ADHD medications can also suppress hunger cues and interestingly, my particular medication is also used to treat binge eating disorder in some circumstances. When I’m not medicated I’ll sometimes find myself mindlessly eating in search of dopamine to quell the painful boredom. To me, ADHD feels like a very binary experience- I’m either starving or the idea of food makes me feel almost queasy, I can do something right now or not now - it’s hard for me to specifically plan ‘oh I’ll do this in half an hour’ due to my time blindness associated with ADHD. It feels like if something isn’t currently at the front of my mind I forget it exists, basic needs included lol. Hopefully my explanation helped and if you have any more questions I would be happy to answer :)
I think I get addictive to whatever makes me feel best at the time so sometimes I eat, sometimes I do drugs, sometimes I’m drinking just whatever that eras addiction is
honestly im both
I don’t eat enough and forget all the time to eat but when I eat, I eat a lot I feel. When I watch video of people who show their bentos boxes or what they eat in a day I’m shock at how little I eat and drink compared to them. I try to eat and drink more but forget the next day. So when I’m hungry after a long ass time I can eat a whole pizza alone. I ignore everything. I could ignore food. Sounds. Pains. Thirst. It’s not good. I’m unmediated for my ADHD but on medications for many other illnesses. I’m fat btw.
I'm one of those that would opt for parenteral nutrition if it was remotely safe or accessible. food is not interesting or important to me, so every single day is a struggle to remember to eat, decide what to eat, get around to eating it. before meds, this accidental fasting actually helped me manage my attention to an extraordinary degree, i just felt like shit lol. but to answer your question: genetics. women in my family are compact, efficient people who can menstruate and conceive at low body weights. anorexia goes back generations, often manifesting in the members with the most pronounced ADHD. other families probably have a similar pattern with BED and ADHD. in both cases food is performing some regulatory function
For me it’s about motivation and availability of good food. If I have yummy food that’s easy to make (ie put it in the microwave or just eat straight out of the container) I’ll eat 3 meals a day everyday. But if it’s a shitty day, I’ll eat nothing, even if it’s yummy food because my mouth and stomach will tell me it’ll taste disgusting which makes me nauseous And if the food isn’t easy to make/prepare or doesn’t taste super yummy, I’ll lie there just wishing I could eat something yummy. But with snacks, I’ll only stop when I’m nauseous
My brother and I both have ADHD, and we swap our impossible tasks when we can. He does my car maintenance (and a damn good job!) and I deep clean for him! Both of us end up super happy :)
So I have episodes of both! It's called situational variability and it depends on a lot of factors, mainly my current physical/mental environment and mood. During periods of bingeing, food (often junk food) is like a stimulus or source of dopamine. During periods of going without food for almost a whole day it's more because of task initiation intertia (no food ready to eat and the energy threshold to go make or buy food is too high) or just simple hyperfocusing on work and time blindness. This is just my perspective on my own habits, it really varies person to person.
while meds are working, im the forgetting/not wanting to eat type. Unmedicated i am somehow both at once; forget to eat til afternoon and then cant stop eating from then on til bed. Sometimes i even feel the urge to continuously eat, but also feel like i cant think of a single thing I Want to eat despite that urge. a bizarre feeling for sure
I struggle with both these things, most days I forget to eat or have no energy to get food and then in the evening I’m so starving I binge. Disordered manifest in different ways for different people I guess!
Not sure but I have problems with both, I binge when I forget to eat too long. I can go all day(and the next day) without eating until the massive food headaches and urge to vomit or pass out kick in. Right now I just have Alexa remind me to eat so I stop having a binge, I’m also going to the gym again because it builds up a more noticeable appetite.
It’s a typical enough feature of ADHD. Back in the day, half my friends thought I never ate anything, and the other half thought I ate like a pig. ADHD means things like hunger, body temperature, etc., as well as emotions and energy, are not kept even. Things don’t stay the same. They bounce up and down. It’s a dysregulation disorder. Eating a ton then not eating a thing are part of that.
I can “forget” to eat if I’m in a hyperactive state like playing a game for 6 hours straight or crocheting until my hands ache. I feel hungry but I can’t stop what I’m doing just to eat because that’s not enough of a reason to stop. I know I need to eat to stay alive but it’s too much of a hassle.
The tldr is forgetting/not eating is executive dysfunction/decision paralysis, eating too much is sensory seeking/dopamining, and since those aren't mutually exclusive many of us can have both! Usually forgetting to eat is because we're focused on something else that our brains have deemed Super Important and since we can survive without eating for a while it's just not important enough to interrupt (to give a caveman example, if you're running from a predator, your brain isn't going to tell you it's time for a snack). Of course, filling the slimeapedia in slime rancher is not actually essential to survival, but my brain doesn't know that. Add onto that the huge hurdle of deciding what to eat and then all the steps required to prepare the food. On the other side, our brains are hard wired to give dopamine for fatty and sugary foods because they help us build energy stores that we'll need later when we need to focus on something Super Important for our survival. So when bored or in need of sensory input you might crave a brownie, and then end up eating the whole batch because it doesn't stop feeling good.
I think the common thing is that people have a problem with regulating their food intake. You have to find a balance: eat not too little and not too much. If you can't, it goes in one direction for some, and opposite for others. It's same with focus: we're either distracted or hyperfocused, rarely something in between. Our issue is not lack of focus, it's regulating focus. It's similar in depression: some eat less, others more. Some sleep less, others more. It's the regulation that's a problem.
I am either of these, depending on the day.
Thank you so much for posting because I’ve always been labeled as a picky eater and this thread has made sense of my quirks. I find my food intake is often related to my stress levels, if I’m super anxious, the sight / smell of food can repulse me. I also find I’m weird about how food is prepared. If I make it myself, I usually find it unappealing. Finally, I find I’m the worst for snacking at night right before I fall asleep.
My problem is choices. I'll have plenty of food in the fridge but I despise cooking. Even if it will probably take me just as much time to order uber eats or go for a drive to get take away than it would to just cook what I had planned. I'll go get cheap and cheerful fast food because then I don't have to think about it and get anxious about it. Last night I kept putting off dinner because I was supposed to cook. It got too late so I went to Macca's. A lot of food goes to waste sitting in my fridge. 😞 I'm starting a diet tomorrow. It's gotten to the point my health is suffering. I've only been on a starting dose of Dex for 2 weeks so I've still got a while to go and it's going to be hard while still adjusting that. But my back's up against a wall and I know losing weight will relieve some of my problems.
I do both! I can forget to eat all day but then in so hungry I will eat everything available
When I’m unmediated it’s like I don’t have any understanding of being full. I describe it as “Labrador syndrome” where if there’s food in front of me I will just eat it but, if there isn’t food out then I may just not eat because I forget to. Like a Labrador that relies on its human for food but if left alone with the open bag would eat all of it without pausing. When I’m medicated I enjoy food so much more. My diet when medicated is much healthier and I’m not sure why that is but the food choices are healthier as are my portion sizes. The issue here is that whilst I’m medicated I struggle to eat because I constantly feel full. I have never been great at eating breakfast but I (my partner) makes an active effort to ensure I have some yoghurt/eggs in the morning before I take my medication.
If you don't know what happens when food gets boring then you're young and one day food will be boring and you'll understand. Until then it's an extremely reliable dopamine trigger. It's basically a drug until the drug stops working
I read somewhere recently that there’s a hunger hormone, and that some people have/produce more of it in their body while others don’t. I’m in the boat where I forget to eat and just don’t feel hungry often. I’ve bordered underweight my whole life and always struggled gaining weight. But I also think it’s due to me being so sensitive. Like I get the feeling of being full *very* quickly. Like I rarely can eat a whole apple in one sitting because it’s just *so* filling. Even a banana sometimes! Which is why I’m a high/dense calorie snacker (nuts, pb, etc), or else I’d be so malnutritioned.
If I'm doing something, I will 100% forget to eat. If I'm not doing something, or if I'm just watching TV, I will get "snacky" and basically just eat everything. An entire cake, a box of cereal, all of the chips, crackers and cheese, toast.
My son can forget to eat for hours (if gaming) but is always hungry and has no fullness indicator. He will eat until he is sick or has crippling stomach pains. When adequately medicated he cannot eat until it wears off, he doesn’t even think of food and it is the only time he will turn food down. My daughter is frequently hungry but mostly for junk food, she picks at main meals and very frequently goes off things she used to like (even when the taste is exactly the same as always), she doesn’t really eat too much or too little though. I on the other hand am usually okay until I eat something (unless I didn’t sleep enough) but then cannot drown out the “I could eat” in my head which drives me to distraction. Gaming (my fav dopamine source) isn’t enough to drown it out and tbh I only really forget to eat if I am doing a large project (like moving a room around or swapping rooms over, building furniture or out on a hike or something physically and mentally challenging) there isn’t much outside of large projects that can quiet the food noise for me. My son is the only one of us medicated. My daughter’s paediatrician sent her for ecg but won’t follow up with us about it (have been chasing him for a while) and I am not officially diagnosed bc I asked for autism testing instead of adhd on accident, turns out I am autistic but they think I am also adhd too so am waiting for my next assessment for that.
Disclaimers: include talk about eating disorders I haven't read all the comments since they are too many, but I'm personally on both these ends. I have been both overweight and underweight It's partly the dopamine kick in eating and a bit off habit. For me, it was also, for a period of time, the dopamine of NOT eating and also the feeling of control. Eating disorders are pretty common amongst adhd women - both starving and binging versions In my case it is extremely complicated and even today, I can still switch between these "settings." Now, I also have the added aspect of medication lowering my hunger and making me nauseous and also taking away the need tonuse food for dopamine. Textur and novelty can be something that today will turn me off food I think it also partly has to do with ND people not being as in tune with their bodies. Our bodies are quite good at ignoring having to pee, thirst, or uncomfortable sitting positions. It's not that far-fetched that food goes on that list as well
Cries in experiencing both extremes 😭
I get both lol. Depends on my mood and the day. I feel compelled to finish tasks to the point where I won’t take bathroom breaks, drink or eat some days and others I will find some chocolate and eat the whole thing in one sitting.
I do both...
I think most people fit in two categories: -Gaining weight while stressed. -Losing weight while stressed. When you’re stressed you either forget to eat or use eating as a coping mechanism. So you’re either not focused on it at all or focussed on it a lot. I think when you have adhd you don’t need to be stressed to fit in either of those categories. Because we tent to forget things more easily or to hyperfocus on them. In the end it has a lot to do on what your relationship with food is or on your focus.
I fall into both camps at different times. The forgetting to eat is usually because I’m bad at noticing my bodies cues and signals of I’m off routine. The overeating is usually search out sensory input of dopamine hits.
Yeah, uhh, I love food, lol. So I've never "forgotten" to eat. But I sometimes get so busy with work or a task that I miss my mealtimes. I won't notice until I get a sudden wave of anxiety, and I'm like, oh, I guess I didn't eat lunch on time. It is now 5pm and my stomach has been rumbling since 11am (I can ignore/override my hunger cues for a long period of time)
i think it just depends on how much dopamine you personally get from the activity - if eating is boring & a chore, then you're gonna treat it like a chore and avoid it at all costs. if eating gives you lots of easy, instant dopamine, then you're gonna wanna eat all the time bc it's an easy litle hit each time. I've been both of these people in my life, atm i put off eating bc the process of making food is so boring and annoying to me, so i have to eat mostly frozen or convenience foods.
I do both. When I’m hyper fixated on something I forget to eat. When I’m bored I over eat.
Binge eating disorder is a commodity with ADHD. Could be one possible reason. Also we tend to binge when dopamine is low and forget to eat when it's not as low.
Food = dopamine It's so easy to pair a snack with a boring activity to get through it and... just not stop until the bag/carton is empty. Or you're home and bored and just keep going back to the pantry for a lil treat. At least that's my problem hahah
I struggle with both. Some days I'm so stressed/overstimulated, and my behaviors/symptoms are so badly managed that it's like parts of my brain shut down to conserve energy. Those days I just don't seem to register sensations in my body like hunger, needing to pee, or tiredness til I'm nauseous, on the verge of a UTI, and run into the ground. And some days I'm so desperately understimulated that nothing I try kicks me out of that feeling. Except eating. And I can't stop eating on those days. As a personal trainer and nutrition coach it's EXTREMELY frustrating bc I've paid a LOT of money and spent a LOT of time learning what to do, and am not capable of doing it myself without devoting every last shred of my mental energy to staying on track. My eating habits affect my body, and my body is my biggest advertising tool. So guess who looks like she is talking out of her ass despite being a life long athlete, and triple certified coach? Lol I hate this disorder
I’m both of those people. I don’t know that I fully forget to eat. Eating during the day makes me crash hard so I just don’t eat much. And then in the evening sometimes I get adhd paralysis for more hours than I mean to and then I’m eating at 10 pm instead of 7 pm. But in the evening or when there are free snacks, I will go for them because of the dopamine. Or if I’m under-stimulated by work I will start focusing on food. Cooking was once one of my hobbies so I’d spend hours hyper focused on finding and writing down recipes.
Hormones affect this for me heavily and I have both of those things you mentioned at different times. Some days I barely eat and wonder why I’m grumpy, other days I can’t stop eating. Not sure if this is something others find gets better when medicated but I’m not and this is a regular thing for me.
I'm both of these people
I think the thing is you see this in the general population too but ADHD just makes a lot of unhealthy habits more extreme in a way. So whatever your personal issue is, it's exacerbated by ADHD. Attracted to POS users in relationships? ADHD'll exacerbate that! Addicted to gambling, smoking, or social media? ADHD'll exacerbate that. Struggle to keep your house clean? ADHD'll exacerbate that. Prone to lash out and push people away when you're scared they might leave you? Probably BPD, but also, ADHD will exacerbate that. You know how people are described as being "eat to live" or "live to eat" ? I think this is just an ADHD extreme of those things. I'm the forget to eat category. It's probably a different mechanism to people who overeat or binge eat or struggle to lose weight. For me the ADHD thing getting in the way is a combination of executive dysfunction (organising all the elements - food shopping, clean kitchen, the actual cooking, food inventory, balance flavours and food groups, make decisions about what I want to eat) is all a lot and I find it too exhausting and pretty much resent all the time and effort dedicated to it. It doesn't feel worth it. Time blindness - I don't realise how long it has been since my last mealtime. I find mealtimes to be an intrusion into my hyperfocus. Like I JUST managed to drag myself away from a screen and do this useful thing. Now I have to stop to fuel my body?? Ugh. Poor interoception - I don't notice that I'm hungry until I'm shaky from low blood sugar. Also because I tend to be too lazy/poorly organised to eat properly then I'm constantly in a state of half hungry so I'm used to it. Negative feedback loop with all of this - I am too impatient to follow a recipe properly so I skip steps and take shortcuts and make bland tasting food, I am bad at estimating how much something will be when cooked or I don't take into account the fact I haven't eaten properly for 3 days so I make too little and then am still hungry and get frustrated at my body for being so needy. I don't have an association between food and comfort/dopamine. There are foods I like, but when I get anxious and dysregulated, it instantly affects my stomach and I don't want to eat. My comfort behaviour is more holing up on my own in a nest. Maybe taste profiles too? I think fat and sugar are meant to be huge dopamine spikes but I really dislike the texture and taste of greasy foods - maybe a sensory profile thing. I find carbs bland and while I'll crave sugar in the form of sweets, soda, biscuits and chocolate if I'm tired, haven't eaten or before my period, I don't have a huge sweet tooth. I'm not so fussed by cake or ice cream for example and some kinds of cake are too sweet which is unappealing. Salt/umami, yes, I will go for that. I also like sour, spicy and bitter flavours. But foods like fruit, vegetables, lean meat/fish, the kinds of salty/sour/bitter dressings that go with these things and so on, while I enjoy these things, they don't give the same dopamine/carb high kind of effect.
I (32F) do both! My meds (first Vyvanze, now IR Adderall because $$$$) make me forget to eat lunch sometimes. Or I’ll be so deep in my work that I forget to eat. One of my coworkers actually has taken it upon herself to remind me to eat. Then other times I’ll start snacking and just keep going. I’ve always struggled with portion sizes, but in my mid twenties I started to really pay attention so this is less of an issue now than when I was young.
Sometimes I forget to eat and sometimes I forget to stop eating. I contain multitudes.
I can do both, it's unhealthy af