top of page
Search

Why People With ADHD Are More Vulnerable to Eating Disorders, Substance Use, and Emotional Struggles

Updated: Jun 5

ADHD isn’t just about distractibility or hyperactivity — it’s a whole-body, whole-life condition that affects how someone navigates emotions, relationships, and even their relationship with food or substances.


Let’s break down why ADHD makes people more vulnerable to eating disorders, substance use, and intense emotional struggles.


Interoception Issues: Struggling to Read the Body’s Signals

Interoception is your brain’s ability to sense what’s going on inside your body — hunger, fullness, thirst, tension, calmness.


People with ADHD often struggle with interoceptive awareness, which means they might:


  • Miss hunger or fullness cues until they’re extreme

  • Eat past satisfaction or forget to eat for long stretches

  • Struggle to notice emotions building until they explode



When you can’t tune into the body’s subtle signals, it’s harder to regulate both food and feelings — sometimes leading to binge eating, restrictive patterns, or emotional meltdowns.


Executive Functioning: Trouble With Planning and Regulation

Executive functioning includes skills like planning, organizing, impulse control, and follow-through — all areas where ADHD brains struggle.


This can look like:


  • Difficulty planning balanced meals or regular eating

  • Impulsive eating, drinking, or drug use

  • Trouble pausing to reflect before acting on strong urges or emotions



The brain craves quick relief — and food, substances, or numbing behaviors can feel like the fastest way to manage overwhelming internal states.


Social & Emotional Pain: Feeling Like You’re “Too Much” or “Not Enough”

Many people with ADHD grow up feeling like they’re always messing up, disappointing others, or needing to mask their real selves to fit in.


This chronic shame and rejection can lead to:


  • Using food, substances, or other coping behaviours to numb pain

  • Developing perfectionistic or restrictive patterns to feel “in control”

  • Avoiding or suppressing vulnerable emotions because they feel overwhelming



Eating disorders, addictions, and emotional shutdowns can be powerful (but temporary) ways to avoid the pain of feeling like a problem.


The Good News: You’re Not Broken — You’re Wired Differently




If you have ADHD and struggle with eating, substances, or intense emotions, it’s not because you’re weak or lazy — it’s because your nervous system and brain wiring make certain types of regulation harder.


With the right support — like ADHD-informed therapy, nervous system tools, skill-building, and lots of self-compassion — you can build healthier, more sustainable ways of caring for your body and emotions.


You don’t have to keep fighting your brain alone. Reach out to us for a free consultation.


References

Joelle, one of our therapists at FSP studied this correlation extensively and a lot of information came from her but her research has yet to be finalized as a publication. Here is a link to her research: https://ruor.uottawa.ca/items/5721fb60-627f-4abe-a446-391dd5deeffd


Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioural inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.1.65


Craig, A. D. (2003). Interoception: The sense of the physiological condition of the body. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 13(4), 500–505. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-4388(03)00090-4


Lee, S. S., Humphreys, K. L., Flory, K., Liu, R., & Glass, K. (2011). Prospective association of childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and substance use and abuse/dependence: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(3), 328–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.01.006


Martel, M. M. (2009). Research review: A new perspective on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Emotion dysregulation and trait models. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(9), 1042–1051. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02105.x


Mikami, A. Y., Hinshaw, S. P., Patterson, K. A., & Lee, J. C. (2008). Eating problems among adolescent girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Longitudinal evidence for risk. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117(1), 225–235. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.117.1.225


Nazar, B. P., Bernardes, C., Peachey, G., Sergeant, J., Mattos, P., & Treasure, J. (2016). The risk of eating disorders comorbid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 49(12), 1045–1057. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22506


Owens, J. S., Goldfine, M. E., Evangelista, N. M., Hoza, B., & Kaiser, N. M. (2007). A critical review of self-perceptions and the positive illusory bias in children with ADHD. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 10(4), 335–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-007-0027-3


 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page