PMDD & Me

By Leila Tualla

This is a collection I wrote during cycles of happiness, gratitude, rage, anxiety, and depression.This is meant to spread awareness as each high and low points yielded an observation and a note. There is sunshine and darkness. There is PMDD and then there is me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leila Tualla
• Release date: Apr 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781393803010

Book preview

These are notes and observations from the poet.

Some of these poems were written during two menstrual cycles; others were from previous works written to spread awareness of PMDD.

Every warrior goes through their own journeys and experiences.

For my PMDD peeps and PMDD warriors, please reach out to peer support and support groups.

Table of Contents

Menstruation Phase 4 - 12

Follicular Phase 13 - 20

Ovulation Phase 21 - 31

Luteal Phase (hell week) 32 - 46

Afterthoughts 47

Sufferer’s Note 51

Menstruation Cycle

I am

For every day, a poem.

For every moment, an observation is noted,

to be memorized, internalized, scrutinized

for another time.

Menstruation cycle: days 1 through 7.

When I bleed, I find myself

purging the person I was in the before.

I ask forgiveness for the things I have done

or things I have said.

But I always ask the question:

who and what am I?

Day 1

I am not this disorder, I think to myself. But

I don’t know if the sudden rage that bursts forth

from within is just me.