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Anorexia Nervosa Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines anorexia nervosa as "a serious disorder in eating behavior primarily of young women in their teens and early twenties that is characterized especially by a pathological fear of weight gain leading to faulty eating patterns, mal-nutrition, and usually excessive weight loss" (48). The main thing that Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary did not state was the fact in which why many women, and a small number of men, turn to the disorder of anorexia nervosa. For many people it is a disorder within ones self and not only in the mind. For some the disorder takes over the patient and they no longer have control of their body. In the Journal of Counseling and Development the authors state that patients of anorexia nervosa can be effected by their roles in which they play in society. The author also says that anorexia nervosa is a representation of Western culture's obsession with the ideal image of being thin (Rogers, Petrie 138). Anorexia nervosa is not only a women's fear of gaining weight, but also more of a disease. The fear of gaining weight