ASM speaker Pooja Lakshmin speaks on experiences with mental health.
Pooja Lakshmin, an author and a board certified psychiatrist, spoke about the importance of redefining self-care at All-School Meeting (ASM) on February 7. Drawing from her own expertise and experiences, she urged the Andover community to cultivate a mindset in self-care to build skills for long-term wellness, rather than taking part in commercialized wellness trends.
Lakshmin shared her experience returning to academia two years after dropping out of her psychiatry residency. She emphasized the importance of setting boundaries to reclaim personal agency, noting that self-care is about making intentional choices to prioritize commitments.
“To admit that I was wrong and having to re-transfer residencies and come back to medicine and say that I’m going to do this changed me, because when I came back to academia, I came back understanding boundaries… I also understood that it was up to me to figure out what I was passionate about… I got to be a writer as well as an author and all of that came about because I was willing to take a risk and say no to some things that other people in my life thought I should really want. That is real self-care,” said Lakshmin.
Christian Robinson ’28 connected Lakshmin’s advice to his own experiences at Andover, where students often overload themselves with commitments. Robinson agreed with her message about the importance of cutting out activities that cause unnecessary stress.
“We’re always in a rush to say yes to things, picking up as many extracurriculars or as many extra credit assignments. Sometimes, it’s too much on our plates and adds unnecessary stress on top of our already bad sleep schedules… The most important takeaway to me was to pause before agreeing to something, think about it, and make an informed decision rather than rushing into commitments,” said Robinson.
Denys Tereshchenko ’26 found Lakshmin’s message of redefining self-care particularly relevant to the Andover student body. Tereshchenko expressed that many students struggle with viewing themselves beyond their academic and extracurricular activities.
“It was nice that she summarized together the idea that self-care is not just bubble baths, but that self-care is a way to exist, that self-care is a mindset that you can have for yourself. [She] brings the point home that we as an entire student population are often not good with self-care, not good with redefining ourselves not as Andover students but as people first,” said Tereshchenko.
During the presentation, Lakshmin also reflected on her conversations with Andover’s student leaders the day before ASM, noting their dedication to creating change within the community. Reiterating the importance of balance, Lakshmin encouraged the student body to prioritize mental health.
“The rate limiting factor isn’t what college you get into or who your advisor is or what your internship is gonna be. The rate limiting factor is actually your mental health… I want you to put as much attention on your mental health as you put on all of your different activities. If you learn to start cultivating that now, you will be leaps and bounds ahead of your peers,” said Lakshmin.
Lakshmin concluded with a call-to-action. She shared that starting to remove “dreadful” activities can help students prioritize commitments while maintaining mental health.
“Write down all of your activities and then circle the activities that you’re really excited about, that you feel a lot of pride in, that you’re really connected to. Keep all those, then put a checkmark on any activities that you’re dreading… Pick one thing from those, and I want you to change your mind and reach out to that teacher, to that advisor and pull back, because you’re allowed to change your mind. You need to learn how to do this for the rest of your career and the rest of your life,” said Lakshmin.
