What Experts Want You To Know

Have you ever eaten the same meal every single day, over and over, until you got sick of it? That might be a hyperfixation meal — and people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are sharing their experiences with food hyperfixations like these all over social media.

There are TikTok videos and Reddit threads full of people with ADHD sharing their current hyperfixation meals. Those foods include everything from a classic PB&J to french fries to ravioli to homemade salmon and rice bowls.

And, in a now-deleted viral TikTok video, comedian Elyse Myers shared a song about her hyperfixation on meatballs. (Myers declined a TODAY.com request to comment for this story.)

While there are a lot of reasons people with ADHD might hyperfixate on specific foods, experts say it’s important to know when to break the cycle.

ADHD and hyperfixation meals

There’s a “tremendous” amount of crossover between disordered eating and ADHD — “even if it doesn’t necessarily fit into the diagnostic criteria of eating disorders,” Sarah Adler, Psy.D, clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, tells TODAY.com.

Having ADHD can lead someone to hyperfixate on all kinds of things, including particular meals. While there’s not a ton of published research about food hyperfixations in people with ADHD, it’s something patients and experts have been aware of for a while now, Afzal says. With a few viral TikToks amid the pandemic, the community has become even more aware of this behavior over the last few years, he says.

Biologically, the behavior stems primarily from the brain’s need for dopamine, which fuels feelings of reward, Dr. Khalid Afzal, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago Medicine, tells TODAY.com.

But, in people with ADHD, a hyperfixation represents a sort of dopamine “malfunction,” says Adler, who was diagnosed with ADHD at age 40. “Individuals are left in a situation where they’re constantly seeking reward but not actually ever fully satisfying the desire.”

Then, often suddenly, the interest in that food “dies down and they move on to another (food) which which excites them,” Afzal says.

A hyperfixation can also come be related to executive functioning issues, Adler says, which can make time management and decision-making challenging — especially during times of stress. “Eating the same thing every day really does lessen the executive energy or the burden to make a decision about food,” she explains. But that can actually “create a narrowing” of the foods that someone with ADHD eats, she adds, leading to fewer safe meal options.

For Sam Kubota, a senior editor at TODAY.com, hyperfixation meals made life with ADHD a little easier — especially during the high stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. She often had the same few foods every day: tortellini with jarred sauce, a breakfast bowl with eggs and avocado followed by the same tortellini in pesto. “I was just weirdly obsessed with it,” she says.

Before that, she’d had hyperfixations on foods like boxed mac and cheese, black bean burgers and specific takeout meals. For her, these eating patterns “really come to a head when I’m stressed out at work or going through it in my personal life,” she says.

The foods people hyperfixate on tend to be more palatable foods, like candy and junk food, as well as comfort and convenience foods that are easy to prepare, such as prepackaged and frozen meals. However, these tend to not be the most nutrient-dense meals. “I’ve yet to see someone who is hyperfixated on broccoli,” Afzal says.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with eating those foods as part of a varied diet, eating only one food for an extended period of time can be problematic. At the most severe end, it could lead to nutritional deficiencies, says Afzal, who shared the story of a patient who ended up in the hospital with a type of malnutrition after eating only pizza.

People with other neurodivergences, particularly autism spectrum disorder, also often find themselves eating the same meals repeatedly.

In the most general terms, “we tend to think about folks on the autism spectrum as being more sensory-avoidant whereas people on the ADHD spectrum (tend to be) more sensory-seeking or sensory-defendant,” Adler explains. For people with autism, they’re able to eat the same thing over and over “because they don’t want to get stimulated by any sort of novel sensation, texture or tastes.”

So, some people may eat the same thing over and over again to avoid being stimulated by new tastes or textures while others hyperfixate on meals because they’re “chasing the high” of a particularly rewarding food, Adler says.

Hyperfixation vs. hyperfocus

Hyperfixations — on specific activities, interests and, yes, meals — are a common experience among people with ADHD. They may also hyperfocus on a particular topic, Adler says.

And although the terms are often used interchangeably and are both triggered by an intense interest, “there are really important differences between them, especially for folks with ADHD,” she explains.

Hyperfocus is an intense interest in or passion for something that’s goal-oriented, Adler continues. There’s even research that hyperfocus can create a state of deep concentration for some people that helps them be more productive. Hyperfocus typically elicits positive feelings of calm and happiness, Adler says.

Hyperfixation, on the other hand, stems from an inability to turn your attention away from something in a way that’s so intense that it might actually impair your life, Adler says. By definition, it’s a repetitive behavior. And it can be similar to that seen in obsessive-compulsive disorder, Afzal explains.

But when we’re talking about food, the distinction can be tricky to tease out, Adler says.

For instance, are you gravitating towards the same foods over and over because that meal doesn’t disturb your sensory issues? Or is it because you’re coming up against decision paralysis and eating the same meal spares your limited executive functioning resources?

Or, in the case of a hyperfixation, are you using the food to stimulate yourself? And, if you don’t eat that food, does that cause stress or anxiety?

When to worry about your hyperfixation meals

“For anyone on the neurodiverse spectrum, managing food habits can be a really significant challenge,” Adler says.

Eating behavior and food preferences are also shaped from a young age by so many factors, including our culture and family influences, she says. So when experts really start to worry is when our eating patterns “start to interfere with everyday life,” Adler explains. This signals that a hyperfixation meal may be verging into disordered eating territory, which can lead to nutritional deficiencies, electrolyte imbalances, weight changes and more, she says.

For instance, people with ADHD and other neurodivergences may find that they frequently skip meals and end up eating a lot all at once, Adler says, which can be exacerbated by certain ADHD medications. And while it’s normal to have texture and flavor preferences, if those preferences become strong enough to make it difficult to eat out socially, that’s another warning sign.

Afzal agrees. “We need to see when these hyperfixations have started to affect their daily functioning,” he says, like if you’re waking up in the middle of the night to eat your hyperfixation meal.

At that point, it’s probably a good idea to get some professional help for your food hyperfixations, Afzal says.

For Kubota, working with a therapist and living with a partner has helped her understand more about her ADHD symptoms, develop productive coping strategies and choose healthier meals. For instance, she tries to keep more nutritious versions of her favorite convenience foods around, like mini protein bars, that come in handy when stress levels are high.

But she also tries not to be too hard on herself during those demanding times. “I have a lifetime of coping with this,” she says. “When external pressures come through, I think you just have to give yourself a little bit of grace because there’s only so much we can do.”