Imagine an emancipated young girl staring at herself in the mirror and seeing only fat. Picture the young girl's parents watching their daughter literally whither away to nothing. These are the constant struggles and fears felt within a family dealing with an eating disorder. As our society continues to focus its attention on being thin, the prevalence of eating disorders in this era is rapidly increasing. Food obsessions, such as anorexia nervosa, need to be given serious consideration because of the psychological ramifications and the lasting effects left with the suffering individual.
             Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by a refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat - even though underweight - and a disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced (Chicchi 2). Anorexics are on an endless diet, and are quite literally starving themselves to death.
             Earlier descriptions of anorexia date back further; however, it was first diagnosed in an eleven-year-old in England in the early 1800's. The first diagnosis was named the eating disorder anorexia mirabilis, or a miraculous loss of appetite. It is now referred to as anorexia nervosa, or a nervous loss of appetite. The term anorexia, however, is a misnomer since the loss of appetite is rare.
             The onset of anorexia usually occurs during adolescence due to the transition from girlhood to adulthood. Young women who suffer from anorexia often starve themselves in hopes of becoming a "perfect, fragile, little girl" (Maloney 73). They simply fail to want to accept the physical changes of the human body that coincide with growing up. Ninety-five percent of all anorectics are females, from the ages of twelve to eighteen (Maloney 59).
             Specific behavioral signs may be present in a person suffering from anorexia. Obsessive e
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