JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Warning: There are graphic descriptions of drug abuse in this story.

The military is full of some of the strongest people in the country; strong in physical stature and mental fortitude.

In this week’s Stories of Service, we meet an Army veteran who was strong enough to accept help when it was offered to her. 

“It’s hard to talk about because you know you don’t like to admit that you were using drugs or that you were in jail,” said Melissa Assaf, who served in the Army for four years and saw duty in Afghanistan and Korea. “It’s just not something you like to openly just tell people.”

Assaf struggled to find a balance in her life after her parents died.

“I started using fentanyl and Molly on the regular every day,” said Assaf, “so I ended up in Veterans Treatment Court, I met Judge Floyd.”

“I didn’t care to change, but once I got into the program and started noticing how Judge Floyd really worked, he’s a very honest man,” said Assaf. “He’s very fair, he is hard, but he’s hard in a way that he just wants to help you like he’s not trying to belittle you and make you feel like you’re nothing.”

Despite her respect for Judge Mose Floyd, a Marine veteran who presides over VTC, initially Assaf did not leave her drug use in the past. 

“I was still using, I was going to court high,” recalled Assaf, “I was popping hot for fentanyl and he’s like, ‘You’re going to die Melissa’.”

Convinced that she was going to be sent to a drug treatment program, Assaf decided to spend a weekend doing drugs with friends in Daytona and said she withdrew a sizable amount of money, but only made it as far as St. Augustine.

“I ended up overdosing in the car,” said Assaf. “I was by myself. Luckily somebody found me that was in the parking lot and called the police in time to Narcan me twice. I was blue, I wasn’t breathing.”

“That was my rock bottom,” said Assaf, who added that she was sent to jail in St. Johns County followed by another jail stint in Duval County.

 “Not only are you in jail not knowing what they’re going to do to you, you don’t know where your children are, you don’t know who they’re with so just the mental anguish every night of being in that cell is enough to drive you crazy on top of the withdrawal of the drug,” she said.

When Assaf was released from jail she went back to VTC.

“When I went back and finally got in front of Judge Floyd I just thought he was literally going to just give me the chewing of a lifetime, tell me I’m going to prison, my kids are gone and all he did was just say ‘I’m glad you’re here’. And I knew I was home, I knew I was where I needed to be,” said Assaf.

“Judge Floyd does it because he loves it like he wants to see people change their lives,” she added.

Melissa Assaf said with the help of Veterans Treatment Court she’s been sober since the night she overdosed on Aug. 9, 2023. 

If you or someone you know is a veteran battling substance abuse more information about VTC can be found here.

If you are not a veteran but are someone or know someone who is battling substance abuse, here are some other resources for treatment:

If you have a Story of Service that you would like us to profile, send us an email to storiesofservice@firstcoastnews.com