The Backfolde Sanitarium

The term streptomania is derived from words strepto- (Greek: turn, twist, bend) and -mania (mad desire, compulsion). Its meaning roughly corresponds to "compulsion to stretch" or "compulsive stretching".

Some of the fundamental components of streptomania include recurring intrusive thoughts, impotence to resist the compulsion to engage in stretching, and the release of pressure following the act of extreme contorting.

There is a difference between ordinary stretching and streptomania: ordinary stretching (whether planned, like yoga exercises, or impulsive, like a morning stretch) is deliberate and is motivated by the reward won from the act of stretching (such as physical comfort, fame or monetary value in case of circus acts and the like), whereas with streptomania, there is the recurrent failure to resist impulses to stretch oneself even when stretching is completely irrelevant to one's current situation and surroundings (such as raising one's leg to the standing split position in a bus, doing splits between the seats in a plane, spider-walking down the street, sitting with one's leg behind the head during school lessons, etc.)

The Backfolde Sanitarium is the world's first and biggest mental clinic for youths suffering from streptomaniac disorders, with or without hypermobility. Results from the ongoing study of the phenomenon of human flexibility allow us to focus on constant improvement of the quality of services, increasing the therapeutic effectiveness on a regular basis.

The clinic's primary focus is to bring the patient's passion in order and turn him from a "spineless psycho" into a rational contortionist who can control his natural passion and knows exactly when it is appropriate to show off his skills and when not.

For that purpose the clinic has specialized gyms where patients can work on their flexibility guided by professional instructors, most of whom are former contortionists and certified yoga teachers.

Public halls let the patients learn to demonstrate their flexibility to an audience in an orderly manner, one flexible position always followed by a specific other position. The sequential method had proven to greatly reduce the arbitrary impulses to stretch right in the street, at school, etc.

The clinic provides padded cells for patients in critical condition, also known as "rubber rooms", specially designed for patients experiencing periods of uncontrolled extreme contortions.

The Backfolde Sanitarium is not just a clinic. It is a great center for the "different" youths where they are able to rehab and find friends with the same mental disorder. Priceless!