Former patient reminds those who are struggling that “there is always hope”

09/28/20 11:39:am

Without knowing anyone else with OCD, former Rogers patient Maya and her parents didn’t realize at first how much OCD was affecting her life.

Maya says that around the age of 14 is when things started to worsen. Her parents investigated residential care options, and brought Maya to, Rogers’ OCD and Anxiety adolescent residential care, the summer after 10th grade. But Maya and her family were apprehensive coming into treatment, “When my OCD was really bad, my parents and I were afraid and wondered ‘what if It never gets better?’”

“It was hard for my whole family when I came to Rogers,” Maya says. “At the family sessions they would ask a lot of questions. They learned how not to accommodate me which I really, really appreciate. At week seven or eight, I started noticing a difference. I could resist my compulsive behaviors a lot more easily. I didn’t have as many intrusive thoughts or obsessions and I was able to challenge the thoughts, which was really big for me.”

Peter Lake, MD, medical director, says that he and the care team at the OCD and Anxiety Center for adolescents feel privileged when a family trusts them with their child’s treatment.

“We have been very fortunate to create an environment and team effort that is able to individualize treatment to meet each patient’s and families’ unique presentation and clinical needs,” Dr. Lake says. “We do this with simultaneous and well-coordinated implementation of many treatment interventions, now needed more than ever in today’s increasingly complex world for adolescents.”

Years after receiving treatment at Rogers, Maya is still thriving. “I’m in college, which I never thought I’d be able to say, because there was a point when I didn’t even think I’d be able to graduate high school.”

Maya’s advice to other people who may be struggling with mental health conditions is “Try whatever you can do to get treatment because it can get better and it doesn’t always have to be this way. There’s always hope.”