riking that its clinical features were described quite early ("Anorexia nervosa: 20th century scourge," 1990, 40).
In describing the disorder in 1897, Weir Mitchell wrote: To call it loss of appetite--anorexia--but feebly characterizes the symptom. It is rather an annihilation of appetite, so complete that it seems in some cases impossible ever to eat again" ("Anorexia nervosa: 20th century scourge," 1990, 40). The clinical features were striking and the disorder was identified early, though it was uncommon until recent years. The patient begins to diet, sometimes after an emotional upset and sometimes without a clear precipitant. In time, the dieting becomes driven by a fear of losing control of the appetite. Many sufferers go no further and hover for years on the brink of a more serious disorder, while others have a severe dieting metamorphosis into an implacable pursuit of thinness and an abhorrence of body fat. Denial is common, and the sufferer typically does not perceive herself as emaciated and exaggerates her body proportions. She will jog
...