People watch television, read magazines, and face the society's image of the perfect body image on a daily basis. Television shows portray stick thin women such as Calista Flockheart, Jennifer Aniston, and Courtney Cox along with many others, to be what is desirable. Magazines show lanky skin and bone girls in ads for things such as perfume and clothing and are filled with the latest fads in dieting. And the public in general is not accepting of people that are "over weight." So that leaves American's with two choices; be thin and get accepted, or be heavy and looked down upon. Anorexia is an all too common route many of today's Americans are taking, once they've decided to become socially acceptable. Once they've decided to be skinny.
             Many people assume that Anorexia Nervosa is only a faze and only effects adolescents, during their high school years. And although ninety percent of these cases do take place during an adolescents high school career, it is not just a faze and it effects people in all age, race, and ethnic groups. (Levenkron 2000, 82) Anorexia Nervosa is a devastating disease that effects millions of lives every year, and more research needs to be done to ensure that there will be more ways to overcome it in the future. Because if the society's view on body image does not change, anorexia will continue to be a very serious and growing problem in America.
             Anorexia Nervosa is a type of eating disorder that is characterized as not only a psychological disorder, but also a physical abnormality. Dr. W. Stewart Agras describes it as "a relatively rare disorder characterized by marked weight loss, an intense fear of gaining weight, disturbance in the experience of body shape, and in females amenorrhea, the lack of menstruation. Anorexics not only get obsessive with their eating habits by
             counting calories, completely avoiding fatty foods, and so on, ...