Have you ever caught yourself standing in front of the fridge, nibbling on snacks even though you don’t feel physically hungry? If you have ADHD, this might sound very familiar.

The truth is, eating when you’re “not hungry” isn’t about lack of willpower or being “out of control” with food, despite what diet culture would like you to believe. In reality, your brain and body are trying to meet very real needs. Sometimes that need is actual hunger, but it can also be about other things that our body and brain are needing.

When we zoom out, we can see that ADHDers often experience a few different “flavors” of eating. These patterns can overlap, shift, and show up differently depending on the day, and none of them are wrong. In fact, they’re forms of self-care.

Let’s break down the three most common ones:

✨ Dopamine Eating

ADHD brains have lower baseline levels of dopamine (and fewer transporters to help that dopamine activate the reward center of the brain), the neurotransmitter...