LEADING THE WAY TO SOLVE ADDICTION –
June 7, 2022 – David Whitesock is the Founder and CEO of Commonly Well. Through the Recovery Capital Index he is working with organizations to improve their care experiences, processes, and methods for measuring outcomes.
David believes we will solve addiction when we don’t solve for addiction. David’s path to his current work has been unconventional. Yet, each moment along that path contributed to a way of thinking and seeing the world around him. David grew up in a military family in North Dakota. Unlike many military families, he did not move around that much. Despite this relative stability, David struggled to connect to others or himself. This perpetual disconnect would be a driving factor for the varied paths of his life.
Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug of choice? When did you stop using?
A. Alcohol. July 2005.
Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?
A. I used to blindly believe in the disease model of addiction. Addiction, once fully activated in the brain is certainly a disease. However, I believe through personal experience and through the study of neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics, that addiction is the result of choices and decision architecture. Sometimes the choice is 100% intentional. And sometimes we are subject to confusing, unintentional, or nefarious choice architecture. But because addiction is a progressive, onset-based condition, it is, like type 2 diabetes, 100% percent preventable and reversible in almost 95% of people.
Q. Do you log on to ZOOM 12-step meetings? How often? Do you share?
A. No.
