Anorexia Nervosa means “nervous loss of appetite.” Consumed by the irrational fear of being fat or overweight, the aim of the anorexic is to lose weight. Society’s pressure to be thin and beautiful influences even the thinnest girls to look in the mirror and see themselves as fat. Jess, a twelve-year-old with anorexia says her thighs are too fat. Even though people tell her she’s too skinny, she doesn’t believe them. She weighs one hundred and five pounds and would like to be eighty pounds. She exercises regularly in an effort to lose weight. If her anorexia continues to progress and nobody steps in to help, Jess will waste away to nothing and eventually die. If you or a teenager you know is showing the signs of emaciation, loss of weight without physical cause, a pattern of excessive exercise, depression, a cessation of the menstrual period, or constant fearful talk about being overweight or too fat, don’t look the other way. It’s time to get help from a trained and experienced Christian counselor.