This week at our employment center a new client showed up who is a Vietnam veteran. He'd only been at TLC for a few days and had qualified for 100% disability a few days earlier. I spoke to him after the employment meeting was over.

"When you start getting those disability checks," I told him, "you're going to have enough money to kill yourself."

He agreed but said he was serious about getting sober. He said he had a lot of problems with his back and knew a relapse might be his last one. He talked about his injuries and said he’d been shot with an AK-47 during a firefight in the 1970s, shortly before the United States left Vietnam. I thanked him for his service before he left the employment center.

His situation reminded me of one of the managers we've had at TLC for several years. He is also a veteran who received a retirement pension, an income which caused him problems. It's a problem because he has enough money to pay for his basics - and drink and use drugs. He's probably one of the higher paid employees at TLC, which is not saying much. Yet he works for us at a small salary because he realizes the only place he can stay sober is in a protected environment. He realizes his income allows him to pursue his addiction so chooses to live in TLC’s protective environment.

We addicts and alcoholics must remember this: until we deal with our disease and get into recovery our disease will take precedence over everything else. Our problem is not money. Our problem is not education. Our problem is not health. Our problem is our disease.