AUBURN – School snapshots covered the front of the refrigerator and recent family photos were spread out along the kitchen counter.

At the small table, two parents sat staring off in the distance, struggling for the words they hope will bring their teenage son back to them safe and sound.

“I love him. It’s just hard to think …” Lorrie Noddin said, trailing off as she fought back tears. “I want him to be around for our family, for his siblings. He’s a big part of our lives.”

Noddin and her ex-husband, Bruce, have worked together in the past to help their 17-year-old son, Brooks, battle anxiety, addiction, depression and mental illness. Tuesday night, they joined efforts for the one reason they secretly hoped they’d never face. Brooks Noddin disappeared a week ago. The teen ran away from Dirigo Place, a residential, transitional treatment facility in Lewiston.

“They come to us with a whole realm of mental health issues going on,” Heather Lent, assistant director of Dirigo Place, said of the program housed on Russell Street near Bates College.

Part of the North American Family Institute based in Massachusetts, Dirigo Place is a transitional living facility for youths returning from psychiatric hospitalization or transitioning from a more restrictive setting. Lent said that the voluntary program operates with a staff-to-resident ratio of one to three, but added that the group home is not a lockdown facility.

Police in Lewiston and Auburn were alerted to Noddin’s disappearance by his parents in Auburn and by the staff of Dirigo Place in Lewiston. Missing-person alerts have been issued statewide, according to the Auburn Police Department.

“He’s a really good kid,” Bruce Noddin said of his son. “He’s a nice kid. But he just has these moments where he turns into someone else. He’s just a troubled kid, and we’ve been trying to get help for him for five years.”

Noddin said that his son suffers from anxiety and depression, is extremely impulsive and has had issues with suicidal thoughts in the past, including writing the couple a detailed suicide note the last time he ran away. And while this is not the first time Brooks has disappeared, it’s the longest length of time he’s not contacted anyone in his family.

Lorrie Noddin said she called her son’s friends and has even tried to contact him through his Facebook and MySpace pages, but continues to reach dead ends. Together, she and Bruce Noddin are looking to the public for help in locating their son. Anyone with information about Brooks Noddin is asked to contact either the Auburn police or the family.