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The Invitation...
A quiet shift comes before the shadows take hold. The light begins to disappear from ordinary things. Your thoughts grow darker, your emotions become unbearable, and slowly, the woman you know begins to disappear. Warp into a stranger that sews itself into your skin.
PMDD can make your own mind feel like a place you no longer recognize. It distorts what you see, magnifies your worst fears, and whispers things you would never believe when the darkness lifts. For 7-14 days, you can become trapped inside a version of yourself that feels terrifyingly unfamiliar, like clockwork. Every month, on the dot, leaving little time to recover between possessions.
Silence gets a voice here. While millions of women fight to suppress it, I learned the only way I could survive was to give it what it demanded: agency. A place to exist. Attention.
Shadow Confessions enters that darkness.
These poems live in the space between who you are and whom the darkness convinces you to become. Where poetry becomes both fracture and repair. Where you're forced to dive deep into the mind's abyss for any chance to catch the light.
For the woman searching for herself beneath the shadows—welcome.
What You'll Discover Inside
Moments of clarity found too late.
Poems the wrestle with hindsight, regret, and the truth.
The weight of caring too much for too long.
Raw reflection on emotional exhaustion, modern motherhood, womanhood, and invisible burdens
Mental and physical battles fought within the shadows.
An unflinching look at mental health, PMDD, anxiety, depression, and the inner storms that shape our lives.
Finding beauty in what survived.
Poems of resilience, healing, and the quiet strength that emerges after heartbreak, loss and transformation.
A Note from the Author...
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There were so many times this book almost didn't exist.
Between the volatile roller coaster of PMDD, a separation, and moving several times over the last few years, finishing Shadow Confessions felt impossible. Add to that the fear, shame, and guilt of releasing these raw words into the world—poems written during some of the lowest moments of my life.
But the funny thing is, through pain comes connection. The more honest I was, the more people came forward with their hands raised and tears in their eyes, recognizing a truth in themselves they hadn't found words for before.
This book started off just for me. Now, it’s for anyone who has found themselves in the shadows, battling, surviving, or simply trying to find a way through.
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Reader Testimonial
"Shell’s unique narrative & perception have the ability to make you feel such raw emotion and events as if they were your own. I love that this book delves into darker states of mind that so many of us experience but struggle to articulate. A beautiful work that I continue to lose myself in, finding new meaning within each passage."
-R.P.
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