Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that affects not only the physical being tormented by the syndrome, but also the emotional and psychological state of the individual. Through hundreds of years of theories, documents, studies and discussions, we have only just come to understand how the mind can control even basic human needs. The impact on the affected person is significantly devastating, but anorexia nervosa has a strong chance of recovery if diagnosed and treated early. Although the effects of the disorder are physiological and psychological for the affected person, it has more than one victim. One might ask whether the victim's family or close support system can play a role in starting or stopping the disabling disorder? Although eating disorders have been around for a long time, they are not well understood. Bingeing and purging is thought to have existed since the time of Caesar, around 700 BC (Engel 2007). In the book Holy Anorexia, Rudolph Bell wrote that religious women of the Renaissance period punished their bodies by fasting to achieve closeness to God. (Bell 1985) The first formal diagnosis of anorexia for medical reasons dates back to 1680. Dr. Richard Morton described a twenty-year-old patient as "a skeleton covered in skin." She suggested that her sadness literally ate away at her. He reportedly died two years later. Another similar patient was documented in 1859. (Morton 1694) The medical symptoms were not widely discussed until the early 1900s and even then were historically considered only a “physical” illness. It wasn't until the 1930s that many case studies on anorexia turned to this disease, perhaps related to a psychological and emotional disorder... half of the article... Lock was part of a research study that concluded that family therapy, in which parents with adolescent children participated, was twice as effective as individual psychotherapy and sometimes produced complete remission of the disorder. (Lock, 2010) It is important to keep in mind that an eating disorder reflects a dysfunctional relationship with oneself. Families cannot cure the individual suffering from the disease. It's no one's "fault" and it's important to remember that everyone has the same goal in mind. (Ekern, 2014) It is equally important for clinicians to be alert to the signs and symptoms of those who present with early signs of an eating disorder which may include excessive weight loss, thinning hair, dry skin, brittle nails, stomach swollen, “downy hair” covering the body, refusal to eat, and distorted self-image (Wiseman, Harris, Halmi, 1998).