ADHD & Eating Disorder Dietitian Nutritionists in Manhattan & Queens NYC
Nutrition Counseling for ADHDers & AuADHDers
As providers who identify as ADHDers, we celebrate neurodiversity with our clients while acknowledging and addressing the challenges of caring for oneself in a world that often isn’t supportive.
It can be painful to struggle with food and body image in a world that does not understand how your brain works. The way neurodivergent folks think can be very different than neurotypicals - we refer to these differences as the primary traits of ADHD.
These primary traits of ADHD often show up as:
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Decision Fatigue
Overwhelmed by too many choices at the grocery store - get nothing
Can’t choose what to eat - delay eating
Order something you don’t really want because can’t choose from the menu
Eat the same foods all the time until you are sick of them because picking something new feels impossible
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Time Challenges
Forget meals or snacks
Start a meal, get distracted, and forget to finish
Get sucked into something and lose appetite
Forget to food shop
Late to or missing appointment
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Sensory Sensitivity
Food aversions and fixations
Grocery store overwhelm (bright lights, loud, bumping into people)
Unreliable hunger/fullness cues
Difficulty sitting for a whole meal
Overactive & underactive physical sensations at mealtimes
Secondary symptoms are effects that arise, not from ADHD itself, but from the shame, guilt, and need for self-protection that develop in response to being a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical world.
This can add another layer of challenge to recovery that may make it feel impossible to get started. When working together, we will address both the primary symptoms and secondary traits to build a foundation of mind and body nourishment.
Some tools we’ll use to create a neurodivergent-informed roadmap:
Exploring habit stacking
Reframing “Success”, “Productivity” or “Functionality” to remove moral judgements
Learning to ask for more support…as a SMART goal
Time boxing/Pomodoro Method
Building awareness of all-or-nothing thinking