Beginning of Essay
Anorexia nervosa is a disorder of self-starvation which manifests itself in an extreme aversion to food and can cause psychological, endocrine and gynecological problems. It almost exclusively affects adolescent white girls, with symptoms involving a refusal to ea ....

Middle of Essay
.... teenagers experience some feelings of youthful rebellion, persons with anorexia usually do not outwardly exhibit these feelings, tending instead to be childish in their thinking, in their need for parental approval, and in their lack of independence. Psychologists theorize that the patient's desire to control her own life manifests itself in the realm of eating--the only area, in the patient's mind, where she has the ability to direct her own life. In striving for perfection and approval, a person with anorexia may begin to diet in order to lose just a few pounds. Dieting does not stop there, however, and an abnormal concern with dieting is ....