Table of Contents
Cribbing
In Ethology(science that observes animal behavior), the crib is referred to a certain behavior of horses to bite wooden logs or anything, and while biting, they suck for more wind, known as wind sucking.
In material science, Crib is referred to as the strengthening material for any structure. So, our skeleton acts like the crib for our body, and the rods on which cementing is done act like a crib for any concrete structure. The role of the crib is to hold onto the structure.
Cribbing is a compulsive obsessive disorder of holding onto something. Horse cribbing is used extensively to refer to the obsessive compulsion of the horses to hold onto the wooden log by their teeth.
Cribphillia
Cribphillia is a term coined by the Lyfas clinical team to refer to a behavioral disorder subtype whereby an individual is observed to have been obsessed with something so badly that they want to hold onto that for the rest of their life. The difficulty is that once a horse starts cribbing, it can’t run and move on, and it will constantly be sucking for more wind. It will suffer, and still won’t be able to stop cribbing.
What is interesting is that not everyone who has a cribbing obsession is necessarily clinically diagnosed as having Obsessive Compulssive Disorder(OCD)[ Diagnostic and Statistical Manual DSM-5 code for OCD is 300.3 (F42)].
Any behavioral anomaly or disorder eventually not only affects the one who is suffering from it but also affects the people around the sufferer. Though most people are not aware of a behavioral anomaly, accept such anomalies as just part of individual behaviors, and try hard to adjust to the anomalies, more often or not such anomalies lead to mental, emotional, social, physical, physiological, psychological and even professional distress amongst people.
A Cribphilic person is obsessed with another person, object, or entity and can’t think or accept any possibility of the object of obsession being separated. They would do anything to hold onto the object, often unconscious of their underneath illness.
Besides being ignorant, about their own cribphillia, the Cribphilic resorts to any tricks, tactics, and strategies to not lose the object of possession.