How Scott Strode turned his recovery into a movement

What started as one person’s path to recovery has grown into a movement helping others find strength, purpose, and community.

Holed up in his apartment, hiding from a world he was afraid to live in, Scott Strode thought about dying.

He had been using cocaine for over 24 hours and, in that moment, was convinced he would die on his bathroom floor. “I was thinking that this was how my life was going to end, and somebody would have to tell my mom,” he recalled. “That broke my heart. That was the last night I drank or used.”

The next morning, all Strode could think about was, now what? He had been using drugs and alcohol since he was 11 and didn’t know who he was without them.

He needed to change how he viewed himself.

Strode pieced together a new identity in the boxing gym, climbing ice on a mountainside, and crossing the finish line of a triathlon. He became part of fitness communities that not only taught him to push his limits but also revealed his inherent strength and resilience, which gave him what he needed to transform his life.

As the co-founder and CEO of The Phoenix, a sober-active community, Strode has helped transform the lives of over 700,000 people seeking identities beyond the label of “addict.”

Now, he is sharing his story with the world. In his new book, “Rise. Recover. Thrive.,” Strode recounts his journey from addiction to recovery to helping hundreds of thousands of others like him.

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