The Struggle: 10 Years Later

Philadelphia native Storm’s debut memoir traces his painful path from developing a life-engulfing addiction to drugs and alcohol to finding sobriety. Narrating his own book, Storm describes how he experimented with drugs and alcohol when he was 12 years old to ease his social anxiety. Soon he began smoking marijuana and spending most days selling drugs to his peers and getting drunk and high. Beginning with MDMA, Percocet, cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana, Storm then began using heroin, a drug that destroyed his life. Eventually, through countless fits and starts, soul-crushing sickness, guilt, sorrow, and fear, he was able to find his way out of addiction, working through the 12 steps and forming healthy relationships with others in the recovery community. Storm delivers his story with disarming frankness and warmth. While he mourns his younger self, he also views himself with compassion and extends this grace to everyone around him. He is not a professional narrator, but this is not what the memoir requires; his unvarnished, occasionally rough, but always clear-eyed presentation speaks volumes.