Everything you Need to Know about Imposter Syndrome

Others may be in awe of what you have accomplished, but instead of being proud, you feel annoyed and embarrassed. You feel as though your secret is about to be revealed—that all of your success so far has been by luck and chance—and you begin to believe that you are a fraud and a liar. In psychology, this condition is called “Imposter Syndrome.”

Psychiatry did not leave a kind of symptoms and phenomena without finding an explanation and justification for them. The most disturbing thing is that psychiatry has found an overwhelming connection between early childhood and its events and the causes of the disorders and phenomena the person experiences during their youth.

The impostor syndrome is one of the phenomena associated with childhood, and this issue calls for us to be conscious of and reconciled with the circumstances we have experienced, as well as to take great responsibility for what we have done or will do in the future for our children.

Impostor syndrome, impostor phenomena, or impostorism can be defined as the belief that one is unworthy of their status and accomplishments, whether in their academic, professional, or personal lives.

In other words, it happens when someone believes that they are getting more than they deserve, leading them to believe that they didn't work hard enough to earn it and that their good fortune or coincidence brought them there, which is totally untrue.

The person with this syndrome feels that they are fraudsters who have been able to deceive these people into thinking that they have high efficiency. This drives them to exert a lot of effort and work excessively to feel worthy of the praise bestowed upon them, to feel that they deserve the position in which they are, and to get rid of their guilt.

People who suffer from this syndrome are classified into five groups. The first group includes people who seek perfection and excellence and who make great efforts to carry out their tasks perfectly and flawlessly. Since permanent perfection does not exist, these people beat themselves up at the slightest mistake or shortcoming and constantly criticize themselves.

The second group includes people who are smart geniuses who feel the need to become experts at all skills quickly, much like the competitors they imagined themselves to be. When they encounter the slightest difficulty in learning a new skill, they feel duped and below the level of intelligence that would make them equally competitive, so they don't deserve to be in this position.

The third group includes individual, independent people who tend to do everything themselves without asking anyone for help. When these people are confronted with their limited human capacity in the face of all these tasks, they suffer. This is due to being overwhelmed by a sense of failure, claim, and status unworthiness.

While the fourth group consists of experts who are curious about the specifics and nuances involved in carrying out their tasks, which causes them to become sidetracked from carrying out their primary task.

And the last group is the category of superheroes, who place burdens on themselves that they can’t bear and demand perfection and total success from themselves in every aspect of their lives. Thus, if these people fail to perform any of their tasks, they feel unqualified, incompetent, and like failures.

Unfortunately, once again, women are more likely to suffer from this syndrome, especially in patriarchal societies, and this is what makes them settle for fewer wages than they deserve and not claim their rights, thinking that they are not qualified enough. Men, however, are not immune to this because of the high standards that society imposes on their masculinity.

The symptoms of Imposter Syndrome

Impostor syndrome is not classified as a mental disorder. It is a phenomenon. The symptoms of this syndrome are common, but they typically manifest as low self-esteem, a persistent sense of frustration and anxiety, tension, and doubt regarding all of the accomplishments that the person has made through their personal effort.

If we want to use a simple illustration of this syndrome, let's say someone passed the admissions exam for a prestigious university like Harvard University. So, their family and friends started praising them and expressing how proud they were of their affiliation with this great scientific edifice. Here, the person with imposter syndrome thinks, "It was a stroke of luck, and the test questions were easy this time," rather than feeling proud of himself and remembering his diligence and work until he achieved this achievement.

“If the questions were different, I would not have known the answer to them, and I would have failed the test, so how can I compete with the really smart students in them? I, who succeeded by chance, do not deserve admission to this university.” Therefore, having this mentality makes the person doubt themselves and ridicule their achievements. However, if they saw someone else accomplishing the same feat, they would warmly congratulate them and raise their hat to them.

The causes of Imposter Syndrome

At the beginning of this article, we discussed how early childhood experiences shape a person's personality. For this reason, we also attribute the main cause of the onset of the impostor syndrome to the events experienced by the individual in their childhood.

Those with this syndrome are often pressured by one or both parents to achieve academic success in their classes. Furthermore, they constantly compare them to their colleagues in terms of educational attainment and good behavior, according to their standards.

Not to mention the constant attempts by the parents to control the child and overprotect them. These behaviors play a major role in the child developing imposter syndrome when they grow up. So, this explains the role of education and the treatment of parents in the psychological construction of children.

Furthermore, there are a number of additional factors that contribute to the upbringing of a person with impostor syndrome, including pathological anxiety or depression. As people with these mental illnesses typically have low self-esteem, they almost always lack self-confidence and self-belief.

The personality traits themselves may be among the potential causes of this syndrome. Some people have an innate tendency towards achieving perfection, and when they are unable to achieve it in all aspects of life, they expose themselves to this syndrome, which often affects people with low self-confidence.

Additionally, new tasks and urgent responsibilities often make the individual feel unworthy of the new position, whether the position is professional, academic, or social. Some employees feel that they have deceived the management when they get a promotion, and some students feel that they are frauds if they pass a difficult test that they rarely succeed in. Also, some women feel that they are not qualified to fulfill the ideal role of motherhood, despite the positive and fruitful results of raising their children.

Approaches to dealing with imposter syndrome

Many people with this syndrome may strive to make extra efforts and work harder in order to prove to themselves or to others that they are not frauds and that they deserve the value and status they have reached. However, this behavior does not lead to a solution. Rather, it is more like spinning in a vicious circle, entering an endless spiral of action.

This is because effort yields new accomplishments, and new accomplishments elicit praise and adulation from others. This generates in the mind of the individual an additional sense of fraud and deception, so they return to drowning in the whirlpool of work.

Therefore, this approach is ineffective for treating impostor syndrome. Instead, the actions to be taken are as follows:

• The correct discharge of these feelings and thoughts in front of a friend who understands them may in turn reveal that they have similar thoughts. This reassures the individual suffering from this syndrome that they are not alone in their predicament. Rather, many share this suffering with them, and this matter would reduce the negative impact of this concomitant in their lives and open doors for them to accept that it is an erroneous way of thinking that must be corrected. Acceptance is the first step toward change and solutions.
• Developing teamwork skills, making serious efforts, and making continuous attempts to mitigate the feeling of having to carry out each task individually and in an ideal manner. The individual is stimulated to feel a sense of teamwork by enhancing the value of integration and developing strong relationships with their colleagues.
• Avoid comparing yourself to others. The only comparison a person should make is between their old self and new self. That is, the comparison between their present and their past and whether they have become a better version of themselves. This is what can be called true superiority and distinction.
• Examining and scrutinizing thoughts before surrendering to the feelings that inspired them. When discouraging thoughts come to mind, individuals should logically assess them: Are they really true? And did the person really reach where they are by mere luck and chance? In most cases, the answer is "no," because luck and coincidence may stand by a person once but not a thousand times. Therefore, no one, not even the person, has the right to question their ongoing distinction and subsequent successes.

It should be noted that these steps will not be able to change the person's view of themselves except through repeated application and practice. As they need to be reinforced in the person's behavior and become their new preeminent way of thinking.

An important note

The individual's skepticism about the accomplishments they make is considered healthy behavior if it is within its natural limits, and it can be classified under the category of "confident humility." It is a motivating factor that pushes a person to work hard and persistently pursue excellence and success.

Unlike people who praise themselves to the point of exaggeration, exalt their modest ordinary achievements to a large extent, and surround themselves with a bubble of arrogance and an illusory aura of excellence all because of their inflated and excessive self-confidence.

Therefore, having a healthy, balanced sense of self-worth is essential, and consciously doubting one's own abilities encourages the pursuit of ever-improving excellence.

In conclusion

Although many people experience impostor syndrome, few are willing to admit it. It manifests as overly humbling oneself in front of others, which progresses to the point where the person begins to doubt their own abilities and attribute their success to luck and chance.

This phenomenon can be dealt with and mitigated by recognizing its presence through observing its symptoms, comprehending the causes that contributed to it, and working to implement the steps that would end its dominance over human thought.