Is adoption for NPs & adoptees like amputation?

Question

Is adoption for NPs & adoptees like amputation?

Answer 1

Yes.

Great analogy.

Answer 2

Absolutely, yes.  I lost my mother.  She's a part of me and I'm a part of her.

Answer 3

Just like amputees, we also experience "ghost pains."

FYI:  Ghost pains are pains that amputees feel where their limbs used to be.  It is a phenonomen that is well described in the medical literature.

Answer 4

Only we're expected to go on pretending like the fake replacements are the real thing and we just need to be grateful for the differences.

ETA: for brain, i have a client ( i'm a massage therapist ) who is missing one leg, and he swears he can "feel" me move my hands over the part thats missing. I pretend to massage the missing leg to benefit the energy thats still there. Its incredible really.

Answer 5

Since my kids' birth mom died a few weeks ago *I* feel like I've been amputated!  I wish I knew how the kids really felt...they seem fine, but I don't trust it.  I think if I miss her this much, the must miss her 10x more.

Answer 6

This would always depend on the situation.  For some, I imagine it could be.  

On the other hand, do you consider an appendectomy or a tonsillectomy the same as an amputation?  For many kids this is a more appropriate analogy.    

Answer 7

That is definitely a valid analogy.  There is a void that I feel even if I don't remember my biofamily.  Ties have been severed.  Just like an amputee we can heal & make the most of what's 'left' of us but of course it will never be the same.

For some they will never heal & feel 'whole' again.

Answer 8

Yes.

And you could equate reunion to sewing a new appendage back on.

It may "look" normal and "seem" normal but it's never quite the same as if it had never been cut off in the first place.

You have to work hard to adjust to the new appendage, you have to take anti-rejection drugs (ha!  I wish there were an anti-rejection drug for adoption!!) and it will never feel quite as normal as something you had always had as a part of your body to begin with.

Answer 9

I would have to agree with everyone else although I am neither.  

As for "the brain" - Gershom is correct about "ghost pains".  My father has a leg missing and he would talk about these pains.

Answer 10

Absolutely. In fact there is an article on IAA that addresses this very analogy, written by the lovely Amris here http://www.informedadoptions.com/index.p...