Once upon a time there was an adoptee who truly believed that she had no "adoption issues". One night she had an interesting dream.
In the dream, an alien race had invaded earth and completely overcome all opposition. This race was a species that fed off the emotional pain of others. They travelled the galaxy, sucking planets dry emotionally, and leaving the inhabitants alive but empty and isolated.
The adoptee and her friends all "knew" the procedures employed by the aliens. First they would abduct you, then take you to the feeder. When you came back, well, you only came back physically...
As the time of her arrest neared, the adoptee searched her heart and mind to find that one MOST traumatic event of her life. She recalled her dad's untimely death when she was only 14.
She thought of her step-father's suicide.
She remembered her first marriage and the divorce.
She considered her second marriage to the most wonderful man she could imagine. And then she knew! HIS AFFAIR. It had to be! She remembered the pain, anguish, anger, and betrayal of that Sunday morning! That HAD to be it. Nothing could hurt worse than that! Nothing!
Armed with that memory, she faced her capture with confidence, certain that having survived once, she could survive again. Imagine her dismay when, as the aliens connected her to the feeder's emotion-inducer, she found herself in her birth mother's arms in the last moments before being handed over forever to her adoptive mother. A scream tore through her, awaking both herself and her husband as she repeatedly sobbed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
HINT: Adoptees were present at the time of their relinquishment. They retain the memory of the event. Even though they have no verbalization for it, it is remembered on an emotional level, and available through the subconscious under certain circumstances.
P.S.:This story is true. The adoptee is my best friend. She isn't given to flights of fancy or overwhelming introspection. She truly believed that she had NO adoption issues. After this dream, she began to deal with some of the previously unrecognized stresses of her life.
