How Disordered Eating Becomes a Concern in the Neurodivergent

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Research has shown an overlap between neurodivergence and those struggling with eating disorders. Neurodivergence is a term used to describe those whose minds process information differently than what society has deemed the standard, including variations in how they interpret, experience, and absorb their surroundings.

Due to perpetuated stereotypes across media and academic institutions, eating disorder research was previously skewed to focus on Western female populations, giving a false perception of who was struggling with these disorders. However, as research continues to evolve and awareness of the presentation of neurodivergence among marginalized populations is built, we are learning how a diverse range of populations are affected by these disorders, including the neurodivergent community.

There are a multitude of reasons why neurodivergent people may be at an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. They may have increased or decreased sensory sensitivities, for example, or difficulties identifying hunger and fullness cues, or they may experience emotions more intensely.

Many of these differences are exacerbated due to the stress of having to live in a world designed primarily for neurotypical people, which could itself lead to the development of an eating disorder. However, due to differences in how they process the world around them, neurodivergent folks also commonly have their own relationship with food that may appear to a neurotypical person as disordered.

But does someone whose experience of the world is privileged to align with the neurotypical society get to make this judgment call? Is it even possible to make a sweeping definition of what disordered eating looks like in neurodivergent populations?

I’ll do my best to briefly explore the nuances of disordered eating among neurodivergent populations as well as identify some parameters for when disordered eating becomes a concern.

Is Disordered Eating in Neurodivergent Folks a Concern?

As I mentioned, many neurodivergent individuals have a unique relationship with food due to differences in how they interpret the world around them. They may stick to the same foods each day, be fearful of trying new things, struggle with hunger or fullness cues, avoid going out, or forget to eat and then eat a lot at once. But is this disordered?

Disordered is a word that suggests a disruption to a person’s overall functioning. This means for eating to be disordered, it would cause increased challenges to an area of functioning, be it physical, emotional, social, or financial.

Whether or not functioning is impaired for a neurodivergent individual should not be determined through a neurotypical lens. Instead, it should be seen in collaboration with what the individual reports and/or desires to see in their life moving forward.

For many clinicians, this involves pushing against the traditional methods for eating disorder treatment to see things from a more holistic and nuanced perspective because neurodivergence is a piece of the person, not a clinical symptom to treat as if to make it disappear.

Eating Disorder or Disordered Eating?

One distinction between an eating disorder and disordered eating lies in how impactful a person’s eating behaviors are on their overall health, functioning, and quality of life. Diagnostic criteria require that an eating disorder significantly impact a person’s functioning in one or more areas of their life. This means that disordered eating has intensified to the point where a person’s well-being is jeopardized by the illness.

Identifying an eating disorder in neurodivergent folks may be complicated because symptoms don’t always align with the perception of eating disorders that we have from the media or society. Following are some signs that are more specific to neurodivergent individuals:

• Sticking to one type of texture (e.g., soft foods, crunchy foods)
• Avoiding cold foods
• Avoiding hot foods
• Only eating foods of a certain color palette (e.g., only tan foods, only red foods)
• Avoiding foods with a certain smell
• Refusing foods if small changes are made (e.g., new packaging, new brand, new presentation)
• Taking a long time to finish a meal
• Going long periods of time without remembering to eat or feeling hungry
• Eating alone or only in a certain location
• Going long periods of time without the awareness of hunger
• Eating large quantities of food after going long periods of time without awareness of hunger
• Developing a strong fixation on one or a few types of foods for a period of time

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As I mentioned, not all these behaviors have to be labeled as disordered in nature. It is more about whether these behaviors lead to impairments to an individual's well-being. For a personal look into this concept and more information on this topic, you can check out this article, where I offered some additional insights.

Reaching Out for Support

Early intervention can be an important factor in recovering from an eating disorder. However, reaching out for support when an individual is neurodivergent may feel more complicated because it can be challenging to find providers who have a background in eating disorder treatment and an understanding of neurodivergence.

For this reason, it can be helpful to schedule consultation calls with providers before committing to working with them. In these calls, you can ask about their experience with neurodivergent individuals and how they work to take a nuanced approach to treatment beyond the traditional eating disorder interventions, which weren’t developed considering neurodivergent experiences.