In American society, people are given the message starting from a very young age that in order to be successful and happy, they must be thin. Eating disorders are on the rise not surprisingly with the current emphasis society places on thinness. Appetite is a desire for certain bodily satisfaction such as sustenance provided by food to satisfy the natural physiological needs of the body (Bolles, 1980; Emmet, 1985). It is a mental want related to a bodily need. Appetite is dependent on psychological factors such as learning, palatability, selection pressures, feeding strategies, and emotion; as well as cultural factors such as social pressures not to eat too much (Bolles, 1980; Emmet, 1985). Overwhelmingly, contemporary eating-disorder clinicians view anorexia as a disorder of adolescent development based on the ability to cope with the demands of that period, particularly the need to develop a clearly defined personal identity and sense of personal competence (White, 2000). There are many different causes, conditions, concerns, treatments and statistics about anorexia nervosa, yet a person who has never been in this situation or has never known someone with this disease couldnt possibly understand the tragedy the poor victim must live through.The term "anorexia nervosa" literally means nervous lose of appetite. Most researchers and physicians agree that the number of patients with this life threatening disease is increasing at an alarming rate. Garfinkle & Garner (1990) define anorexia as an emotional disorder characterized by an intense fear of becoming obese, lack of self-esteem and distorted body image which results in self-induced starvation. The development of this disease generally peaks between the age of 14 to 18 but can occur later in life and is not uncommon to see it in women in to their early 40s. Garfinkle & Garner (1990) state that recent estimates suggest that 1% of American girls between this age span will develop ...
