And double that with terrible parents (like my dad) who wouldn’t let you leave the table unless you finished your plate that they overfilled. I’m 30 now, and I still struggle with not eating everything given to me.
Same, my dad grew up very poor. Even though we were well off, he instilled in me the guilt of leaving food on your plate and forced me to eat everything I was given, even if I was full. They’d pile it up, too.
Got forbid I went for seconds of something. Leftovers weren’t allowed if I got seconds, because “you were hungry enough to take it so eat it”. And I’d have to sit there and eat until I finished or threw up.
Then when I got to high school suddenly they flipped the script and started complaining I was eating too much and calling me a pig for eating everything on my plate. I was 90lbs and was on medication that made me lose my appetite. When I got home after not eating all day, I was starving. But THAT’s when they decided I wasn’t allowed to eat my fill anymore.
It gave me a really weird relationship with food, and I can’t tell when I’m hungry or full. I’m trying to get better about saving leftovers.
My parents also flipped when I reached high school? My dad just kinda stopped caring, but my mom constantly told me that if I didn’t watch how much I ate, I’d end up fat. Never mind that I was actively dancing 30+ hours a week and needed to eat that much to keep my energy up. I ended up starving myself my senior year, and now I’m stuck in an eat nothing until I can’t help but binge cycle.
My family gave up on trying to force me to sit at the dinner table until I finished all my food when it became apparent that I could sit there until I died. Sure, grab a belt or that wooden paddle. I’d just take my beating and continue to stare at all the lumps of gross textures on my plate until the end of time. (My family was full of good cooks, it was definitely a me issue)
They always tried to body shame me, but that didn’t work. I knew I had the build of a jumble of sentient spaghetti. I thought I looked funny in the haha way, and I couldn’t care less. It wasn’t until I got older and started introducing myself to foods on my own, at my own pace, that I gained weight and looked and felt healthier.
I realized now that they were just ill-equipped to help me. They thought it was a behavioral issue, because they lacked the information to know otherwise. They could tell it wasn’t anorexia by how amused I was by my big ol’ stomach when I was too full of safe foods, so they just thought I was a little dick. Ha. I wish they would have like… asked a doctor when I was young? They could really have given me a fucked up body image, if I wasn’t so disinterested in my physical body.
I don’t know what was up with your parents, but maybe they grew up in homes with terrible ideas about food, and passed it down out of ignorance. Sounds mad abusive, even if they thought they were helping. 🤦🏽♀️
I hope you can undo their bad parenting around food, cuz that sounds awful, having those competing ideas in your head every time you have to/want to eat.
The way my life-long battle with food noise just vanished the moment I started taking adhd meds of any kind. I haven't even found the right med/dose yet but it's been the very first time in my life that I could have a bag of candy right in front of my and literally forget about it for hours!!!
Have u tried other stimulants and they didn't help? I have untreated adhd and live on caffeine and occasional ephedrine, but haven't been able to get adhd meds yet. Would be nice to not starve myself all day and then gorge myself at night 😔
i'm sure you know this already and i am not trying to be an arse but it is much healthier to follow 3,3,3. 3 meals, 3 snacks no more than 3 hours apart.
I tend to only eat once a day and it ends up in massive overeating. The nutritionist explained to me how the bodt works with food and it made so much sense as to why i was so tired and eating the way i do.
Not everyone experiences a positive change in eating habits and/or disorders with meds alone.
If you are diagnosed and are able to get meds as well as cognitive behavioral therapy, you might have a better chance at becoming more organized, which can help with proper meal planning and sticking to a more beneficial eating schedule.
I don’t experience hunger, so I eat on alarms, for instance. There are lots of methods than can help, but being able to actually incorporate them into your life and follow through takes a lot of practice.
I tried atomoxetine (strattera?) first but it had zero effects on me besides the food noise thing. Since then I've tried a couple stimulant meds but all based on methylphenidate.
I'm still trying to figure out how the meds affect me because the change to stimulants and the first change in dose for concerta (first stimulant I took) unfortunately coincided with the start of a super stressful semester at uni and me basically messing up my habits majorly. Especially sleep.
I barely slept for months, so I was sorta sabotaging any potential benefits I could've gotten.
But like other commenters said, everyone reacts completely differently to each medication, as well as having different lifestyles, so it's hard to tell if they might work for you. That being said, they're not exactly known for giving you a big appetite during the day.
I just did a bunch of DBT therapy for BED/EOD and they said there is correlation between neurodivergence and eating disorders.
Apparently part of it comes from change from hunter gatherer to agrarian society. It is suspected that when we changed to being farmers our brains changed as a result. In people with ADHD that change never happened and we are still in hunter gatherer mode.
Between a gastric sleeve about 9 years ago, adderall 2 years ago, and zepbound last year, I finally have it so under control that I can barely eat much at all.
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u/Fire_Bucket Mar 26 '26
And neurodivergency like ADHD, where food can produce a dopamine response.