How ADHD Influences Your Relationship with Food and Body with Aleta Storch, RD, LMHC

Today, we’re diving into the tangled relationship between ADHD and our struggles with food and body image. Here’s the truth—people with ADHD are four times more likely to develop an eating disorder. And it’s a cycle that can feel impossible to break. When eating disorders go untreated, they can make ADHD symptoms even worse. And when ADHD isn’t managed, it can wreak havoc on our relationship with food and our bodies.

And I don’t think think eating disorder treatment world is talking about this overlap enough, nor is it adequately addressing the needs of folks who have both ADHD and disordered eating. This lack of recognition keeps so many of us trapped in a cycle of shame and confusion because the core issues driving the ED aren’t being addressed. For so many of us, this is the missing puzzle piece in understanding and healing our relationship with food and our bodies, especially if we’ve been fighting this battle for what feels like forever and can’t seem to get traction in recovery.

 

Guest Bio

Aleta Storch (she/her) is a Dietitian, Therapist, and Certified Body Trust® Provider, and a leading expert in the field of ADHD nutrition. She specializes in providing neurodivergent-affirming, values-centered, body liberation work with folks that have ADHD, disordered eating / a history of dieting, and autoimmune conditions. Aleta is the owner and founder of a virtual group practice, Wise Heart Nutrition. She is also the creator of the groundbreaking, Eating with ADHD® approach and the monthly membership program, Neurished, which she developed as a resource for supporting ADHDers in understanding their brain and breaking out of the chaos in order to find more freedom and joy, and make lasting changes in their relationship with food and eating. 

In this episode of Taking Up Space, we discussed: 

• Aleta’s shares her process of arriving at the specialization of neurodivergent friendly and weight inclusive lens in her practice as a dietitian and therapist
• Aleta introduces her brain story and her own experience with ADHD and its unique impact to her relationship with her body and food
• Defining what a brain story is and how it can intersect with our body story
• The process of getting diagnosed with ADHD and the grief that can come up with this diagnosis and acceptance, validation that can come with receiving that diagnosis as well 
• How the systems can make neurodivergent folks feel that their brain is wrong or broken and instead reframing that the world doesn’t make room for those neurodivergent brains to exist
• The systems that make it challenging for folks to receive an accurate diagnosis
• How the broadened definition of what ADHD is and who has ADHD has helped people identify their neurodivergence.
• How ADHD symptoms and presentation can change and shift over time as we grow older
• The role of hyperfixation, disorganization, and emotion dysregulation within ADHD that can influence relationship with bodies and food
• Exploring the research that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have nearly four times the risk of developing an eating disorder when compared to their peers. 
• Identifying the components about ADHD increase that risk for developing a disordered relationship with food and body, potentially progressing into an eating disorder
• The role of dopamine in the brain and how it impacts the relationship with food and body
• Disputing the narrative of food addiction as it relates to the dopamine narrative

 

Connect with Aleta:

• Aleta’s Practice: https://www.wiseheartnutrition.com/
• Aleta’s resources for those with ADHD: https://www.wiseheartnutrition.com/ADHD
• Neurished program: https://www.wiseheartnutrition.com/neurished
• Aleta’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_adhd_rd/

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