High school junior Ojas Sachan has added “author” to his list of accomplishments after writing and self-publishing a book about teen mental health, aiming to give peers a tool to navigate the growing mental health crisis.
“Mental health, especially in the modern generation, is declining rapidly,” Sachan said. “So I wanted to give people of my generation [a] tool that they can use to combat this kind of environment.”
In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 40%, or 2 in 5 U.S. high school students reported feeling extended hopelessness and sadness.
"I noticed something in the world around me, and thought to myself, Surely this can't be right. And over the years, I experimented with a bunch of different protocols, some good, some bad, and some that were just okay. And that's when I realized that the changes I had made to my life didn't have to be just limited to myself. That’s why I [wrote] this book. The state of your mind is more important than anything else in life, and it would be a shame to keep everything I've learned to myself instead of sharing it with the world.”
Each chapter of his book tackles a specific pillar of mental health, from motivation to discipline, blending research with personal experimentation. Early readers have shown promising feedback for the book, with some even calling it "one of the best self-help books [they've] ever read".
At its core, the book emphasizes that mental health is not just the absence of mental illness. Sachan argues that mental health is "something everyone should prioritize," regardless of whom they are. And unlike most other authors in the space, he frames mental health as a set of trainable skills that anyone can master with deliberate practice.
"Do not skim over this next message, because it may just change the course of your life. Look at it, do a double-take, rub your eyes like a cartoon character, and look at it again. Highlight, color-code, and annotate away: Mental health is, without a doubt, the greatest skill anyone could ever aim to improve."
— Ojas Sachan, The Calibrated Mind
To learn more about Sachan's book, please visit the official website of The Calibrated Mind.