Imposter syndrome (IS) involves unfounded feelings of self-doubt and incompetence. You may be able to reduce these feelings by talking with people close to you or seeking help from a mental health professional.
“What am I doing here?”
“I don’t belong.”
“I’m a total fraud, and sooner or later, everyone’s going to find out.”
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Early research exploring this phenomenon primarily focused on accomplished, successful women. It later became clear that IS can affect anyone.
Imposter syndromeTrusted Source , also called perceived fraudulence or imposter (or impostor) phenomenon, involves feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence that persist despite your education, experience, and accomplishments.
Imposter feelings represent a conflict between your self-perception and how others perceive you. You may fear or believe that you don’t deserve to be in a current position.
Even as others praise your talents, you write off your successes as timing and good luck. You don’t believe you earned them, and you fear others will eventually realize the same thing.
People with IS may try to make up for feeling like an imposter by putting more work in, or they may live in distress about it. This may look like:
- self-consciousness
- low self-esteem
- anxiety
- depression
The work you put in can keep the cycle going. Your further accomplishments don’t reassure you — you consider them nothing more than the product of your efforts to maintain the “illusion” of your success.
Any recognition you earn, you call it sympathy or pity. And despite linking your accomplishments to chance, you take on all the blame for any mistakes you make. Even minor errors reinforce your belief in your lack of intelligence and ability.
Over time, this can fuel a cycle of anxiety, depression, and guilt.
You might feel guilty or worthless when you can’t achieve a goal and burned out or overwhelmed by your continued efforts.
Leading IS researcher Dr. Valerie Young, in her book “The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It,” describes the five main types of imposters her research informs.
These competence types, as she calls them, reflect internal beliefs about what competency means to someone.
1. The perfectionist
You focus primarily on how you do things, often to the point where you demand perfection in every aspect of your life.
Since perfection isn’t a realistic goal, you can’t meet these standards. Instead of acknowledging the hard work you’ve put in after completing a task, you might criticize yourself for small mistakes and feel ashamed of your “failure.”
You might avoid trying new things if you believe you can’t do them perfectly the first time.
2. The natural genius
You’ve spent your life picking up new skills with little effort and believe you should understand new material right away.
If something doesn’t come easily to you, or you fail to succeed on your first try, you might feel ashamed and embarrassed.
Your belief that competent people can handle anything with little difficulty makes you feel like a fraud when you have a hard time.
3. The rugged individualist (or soloist)
You believe you can handle everything solo. If you can’t achieve success independently, you consider yourself unworthy.
Asking someone for help or accepting support when it’s offered means:
- failing your high standards
- admitting your inadequacies
- showing yourself as a failure
4. The expert
Before considering your work a success, you want to learn everything about the topic. You might spend so much time pursuing your quest for more information that you have to devote lost time to your main task.
Since you believe you should have all the answers, you might consider yourself a fraud or failure when you can’t answer a question or encounter some knowledge you previously missed.
5. The superhero
You link competence to your ability to succeed in every role. Failing to successfully navigate the demands of these roles proves your inadequacy.
To succeed, you push yourself to the limit, expending as much energy as possible in every role.
Even this maximum effort may not resolve your imposter feelings. You might think, “I should be able to do more,” or “This should be easier.”
No single clear source causes imposter feelings. Several factors likely combine to trigger them.
Parenting and childhood environment
You might develop imposter feelings if your parents or guardians:
- pressured you to do well in school
- compared you to your sibling(s)
- were controlling or overprotective
- emphasized your natural intelligence
- sharply criticized mistakes
Academic success in childhood could also contribute to imposter feelings later in life.
Personality traits
Experts
- Imposter cycle: This involves over-preparation and procrastination. You may
briefly feel accomplishedTrusted Source after finishing a task but don’t internalize the success, leading to fear, anxiety, and feeling like a fraud, which follows you into the next task. - Perfectionism: Your self-standards may be practically unattainable and driven by the need to “be the best.”
- Super-heroism: You may
over-prepareTrusted Source for tasks to appear more than capable of completing them. - Fear of failure (atychiphobia): You may fear shame or humiliation or being exposed as an imposter from achievement-related tasks, especially if you do worse than a peer.
- Denial of competence and capability: You may doubt your intelligence, experience, skills, and natural talents. Any success you experience you may relate to chance despite having evidence, and you may internalize failure.
- Fear of success (achievemephobia): You may believe that success leads to higher expectations or an increased workload and failure as a positive feedback loop.
Existing mental health symptoms
Fear of failure can prompt emotional distress. Many people coping with imposter feelings also experience anxiety and depression.
Living with depression or anxiety might mean you experience:
- self-doubt
- diminished self-confidence
- worries about how others perceive you
This mindset of feeling “less than” can reinforce the belief that you don’t belong in your current environment.
IS can worsen mental health symptoms, creating a cycle that’s difficult to escape.
New responsibilities
It’s not uncommon to feel unworthy of an opportunity you just earned.
You want the opportunity, certainly. All the same, you might worry you won’t measure up to expectations or believe your abilities won’t match those of your coworkers or classmates.
These feelings may fade as you settle in and get familiar with the role. Sometimes, though, they can get worse — particularly if you fail to receive support, validation, and encouragement from your supervisors or peers.
Gender bias and institutionalized racism can also play a significant part in imposter feelings.
Awareness of the bias against your gender or race might
Awareness of these negative stereotypes can affect your performance, leading you to fixate on your mistakes and further doubt your abilities.
The microaggressions and discrimination you experience along the way can reinforce the feeling you don’t belong, which is exactly the intention of those harboring and acting upon racist agendas.
Even the term “imposter syndrome” can reinforce the perception of yourself as unworthy. The word “imposter” carries a strong connotation of deceit and manipulation, while “syndrome” generally implies illness.
True imposter feelings involve:
- self-doubt
- uncertainty about your talents and abilities
- a sense of unworthiness that doesn’t align with what others think about you
- thinking you’ve fooled others into believing you are someone you aren’t
But what if you find yourself in an environment where your peers fail to make room for you or imply you don’t deserve your success?
It’s entirely understandable that you might feel out of place and undeserving.
There’s a big difference between secretly doubting your abilities and being made to feel as if your identity makes you unworthy of your position or accomplishments.
More inclusive research on imposter feelings people of color experience, particularly women of color, may help separate these experiences.
Promoting workplace and academic cultures that foster inclusivity and actively work toward anti-racism is key to helping reduce imposter feelings.
When it’s not imposter feelings you’re experiencing but the more harmful effects of systemic racism, a culturally sensitive therapist may offer support and help you explore your experience and discuss the next steps more in-depth.
The following strategies can help you resolve imposter feelings productively:
Acknowledge your feelings
Identifying imposter feelings can accomplish several goals:
- Provide outside context: Talking with a trusted friend or mentor about your distress can provide objective information about your situation.
- Reduce the fear of feeling overwhelmed: Defining and sharing imposter feelings can help them feel less overpowering.
- Support yourself and others: Opening up to peers about how you feel can encourage them to do the same, helping you realize you aren’t the only one who may feel like an imposter.
Build connections
Avoid giving in to the urge to do everything yourself. Turn to classmates, academic peers, and coworkers to create a mutual support network.
You can’t achieve everything alone. Your network can:
- offer guidance and support
- validate your strengths
- encourage your efforts to grow
Sharing imposter feelings can help others in the same position feel less alone. It creates the opportunity to share strategies for overcoming these feelings and related challenges you might encounter.
Challenge your doubts
When imposter feelings surface, ask yourself whether any facts support these beliefs. Then look for evidence to counter them.
Say you’re considering applying for a promotion, but you don’t believe you have what it takes. Maybe a small mistake you made on a project a few months ago still haunts you. Or perhaps you think the coworkers who praise your work mostly feel sorry for you.
Fooling all your coworkers would be difficult, and underperforming likely wouldn’t go unnoticed.
If you consistently receive encouragement and recognition, that’s a good sign you’re doing plenty right — and deserve a chance for promotion.
Avoid comparing yourself to others
Comparing yourself to others is not beneficial. Everyone has unique abilities. Focusing on what makes you unique and exploring ways to further develop those abilities may stimulate healthy self-growth.
You may not excel in every task you attempt, but you don’t have to. Even when it appears someone has everything under control, they may be facing difficulties you’re unaware of.
Imposter syndrome might feel like you’re somewhere you don’t belong. But success doesn’t require perfection. True perfection is practically impossible, so failing to achieve it doesn’t make you a fraud or imposter.
Kindly and compassionately providing yourself with a more realistic perspective can counteract judgment and self-doubt and help encourage and support you in pursuing healthy self-growth.
If you continue to live with imposter feelings, consider talking with a therapist. They can offer support with:
- overcoming feelings of unworthiness or perceived fraudulence
- addressing anxiety, depression, or other emotional distress
- challenging and reframing unwanted beliefs
Crystal Raypole has previously worked as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health. In particular, she’s committed to helping decrease stigma around mental health issues.
