TABOO TUESDAY: Panic in Silicon Valley with VP of Marketing at GoodRX, Sunil Rajaraman

Emotionally Fit

In 2016, Sunil Rajaraman wrote a satirical essay titled ‘This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley’ for the tech-heavy, San Francisco-based online magazine The Bold Italic. Within days the article was trending on social media with hundreds of comments and nearly a million page views. In this Taboo Tuesday, Sunil talks with Dr. Emily about the anxiety he experienced as a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and how he’s learned to shift his relationship to it.

Staying emotionally fit takes work and repetition. That's why the Emotionally Fit podcast with psychologist Dr. Emily Anhalt delivers short, actionable Emotional Push-Ups every Monday and Thursday to help you build a better practice of mental health, and surprising, funny, and shocking conversations on Taboo Tuesdays - because the things we’re most hesitant to talk about are also the most normal. Join us to kickstart your emotional fitness. Let's flex those feels and do some reps together!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Follow Sunil on Twitter

Listen to Sunil’s podcast This is Your Life in Silicon Valley

Read This Is Your Life in Silicon Valley by Sunil Rajaraman - The Bold Italic

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The Emotionally Fit podcast is produced by Coa, your gym for mental health. Katie Sunku Wood is the show’s producer from StudioPod Media with additional editing and sound design by nodalab, and featuring music by Milano. Special thanks to the entire Coa crew!

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(02:01) - How ‘This Is Your Life In Silicon Valley’ changed Sunil’s life and career - “I put up the piece and then 24 hours later it started to get traction. I had never experienced true virality before. This was nuts. This was like almost a million page views in days. It was crazy.”

(05:26) - Cue the Anxiety Attacks - “There's a face that you put on for investors. There's a face that you put on for employees. Then there's the face that you try to put on at home. And then there's other parts of you that you just try to compartmentalize here and there. Eventually that can't hold.”

(11:12) - Self-stigmatization and why we should be more open about struggling with mental health - “In the process of going through therapy, you say stuff out loud that sounds weird at first. And then you're like ‘Wait a second. This isn't weird. This is who you are. And it's totally okay’.”

(15:54) - Addiction and substance abuse - “It's all a spectrum. Pretty much anything that can bring good into our lives, when used incorrectly or in the wrong amount, ends up hurting us.”

(17:25) - How going to therapy has helped Sunil - “You do say things out loud about yourself that can kind of feel uncomfortable, but I can now say out loud, ‘I like writing and I like when people read my writing’ and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.”

(20:58) - The downsides to social media, FOMO and constant comparison - “The feeling of wanting more, rather than owning what you are and being happy with it. It's very different. I still struggle with it.”