Tethered and Untethered

For more than two decades, Michelle believed strength meant endurance.

She built a life around holding everything together—raising two children, surviving a romantic but deeply codependent relationship with an addict, working in one of the most emotionally demanding helping professions, and pushing through pain long before it had a name. Control felt like safety. Love felt like responsibility. And silence often felt like survival.

Then her body stopped cooperating.

Diagnosed with rheumatoid ar...