RISE. RECOVER. THRIVE.

A recovering addict with nearly 30 years of sobriety shares his story of childhood trauma and the philosophy behind “the Phoenix movement.”

One night in 1997, Strode found himself at the end of an “uncontrolled nosedive,” crash-landing on his bathroom floor in the dark, snorting cocaine off a CD case, paranoid that the police were coming for him. He was sure that he was eventually going to die of a cocaine overdose if he didn’t stop using. “Instead of dying,” the author writes, “that’s the day Scott Andrew Strode was born.” Strode writes that he was dealing with unaddressed childhood trauma from living with an unstable father who routinely terrorized his children and threatened suicide if Strode’s mother ever left him. The author describes a typical interaction with his father this way: “I flinched and, looking down, girded myself as always for a possible strike. But his words always hurt far worse. ‘You’re more trouble than you’re worth!’ Sadly, I was beginning to believe him.” His journey to recovery, while discovering a love of mountain climbing and other sports, travels some ground that will be familiar to readers of recovery memoirs. However, it’s a lean, propulsive narrative that also serves as the necessary backdrop for understanding The Phoenix—the nonprofit organization that Strode started in 2007 to help others overcome trauma and addiction in a sober, active community. About the addiction crisis, he writes, “when addiction and overdose deaths reach an all-time high, it may be time to ask: What is it about today’s toxic culture that is causing so many deaths of despair?” The author asserts that those who suffer the most from addiction issues are just “canaries in the coal mine.” He further asks, “What’s out there killing the canaries that will eventually take down the rest of us too?” These are important questions to explore, and Strode’s decision to place them within an absorbing personal narrative makes them all the more engaging and relatable.

A thoughtful memoir of recovery and empowerment.