Dealing With the Feeling That You’re a Fraud — Imposter Syndrome

Dealing With the Feeling That You’re a Fraud

Feeling like an impostor can prevent us from taking on new challenges and opportunities, and HubSpot Social Media Community Manager Krystal Wu suggests speaking to your manager about any feelings of inadequacy that prevent you from progressing further in your career.

People suffering from impostor syndrome often believe their success was achieved due to luck rather than hard work, leading them down a path toward burnout, decreased creativity, and feelings of inadequacy.

1. Real Life Examples

Feelings of being an Impostor (Imposter Syndrome) are devastating for one’s self-esteem, confidence and ability to excel at work. Unfortunately, most who suffer from imposter syndrome remain silent about their experience, making them feel isolated in their struggle. If you suspect a colleague or team member might be going through imposter syndrome symptoms, offer them helpful tools and support services immediately.

At times, feeling like an impostor may result from personal trauma and anxiety. People who have endured trauma tend to keep their nervous systems on high alert in order to protect themselves, making them especially susceptible to messages that trigger feelings of impostor. Furthermore, individuals who were neglected as children may develop the sense that they do not deserve love and respect from society.

Impostor syndrome can often be traced back to comparison, and an unfortunate habit of constantly comparing oneself negatively with others. This comparison cycle can create self-deprecating thoughts and feelings as well as unhealthy competition and jealousy at work, creating a vicious circle of self-doubt that makes life miserable for the person experiencing them. They may feel reluctant to seek assistance or request feedback about their work and may shy away from new challenges altogether, leading them to withdraw from work entirely and miss career-advancing opportunities altogether, ultimately negatively affecting mental health and overall life satisfaction.

2. Relevant Psychological Facts

People affected by Impostor Syndrome often struggle with internalizing their accomplishments and attributing their successes to luck or external forces instead of realizing how intelligent, experienced and natural their achievements actually are. They may attribute success to luck rather than their own intelligence, experience or natural talent.

As much as it may feel like they do, however, there are ways to combat those negative voices in your head. Begin by considering the facts: does everyone really believe you are a fraud? Asking yourself these questions may help overcome this feeling. Additionally, keep a list of accomplishments or seek feedback from trusted colleagues regarding your work can also be effective ways of combatting negative self-talk.

Impostor syndrome should not be confused with low self-esteem. While they can overlap, studies have demonstrated that low self-esteem stems more from biological causes and social factors than from imposter syndrome.

As a leader or manager, you can support team members suffering from impostor syndrome by offering positive reinforcement and making sure they receive adequate support. For instance, assign one of your top performers as mentor for new hires or assign responsibility in a field they have an interest in exploring — providing these types of opportunities can build confidence among employees as they transition into their professional roles more smoothly. You could even offer impostor syndrome coaching for individual team members in order to address it more directly.

3. Therapy Tricks

High achievers often feel that they’re an impostor syndrome, the feeling of being an “outsider.” This often manifests when faced with unfamiliar or challenging situations like starting graduate programs or transitioning into new roles at work.

These feelings can also be brought on by family members placing too much emphasis on achievement or being overly critical, and can even become worse due to depression, alcohol misuse or any number of personal challenges such as recovery from addiction or eating disorders.

However, there are ways to manage and combat self-deprecating thoughts. The first step should be realizing you’re not alone: A 2020 study found that as many as 82% of people suffer from impostor syndrome.

Therapists can assist with recognizing and managing impostor syndrome by helping you explore past experiences, pinpoint its roots, and provide strategies for combatting it and increasing performance at work.

BetterHelp offers an effective solution to impostor syndrome: by matching you with a therapist for an initial consultation within 48 hours, answering a few simple questions will get you connected with one who best matches your preferences and goals.

4. Self Talk

People living with impostor syndrome tend to be perfectionists who struggle to recognize their accomplishments, attributing any success to external influences such as luck or external sources and overworking themselves in fear of failure. Furthermore, they may believe they don’t deserve recognition given, or fear others may discover them as frauds.

Therapists can assist their clients in learning to identify negative thoughts and work through them effectively. They can teach healthy coping mechanisms, as well as helping them see that these feelings aren’t reality. Furthermore, therapists can help their clients distinguish between impostor feelings and systemic discrimination, such as racism or sexism.

When these feelings surface, they can cause people to avoid opportunities that trigger them such as applying for promotions or enrolling in more challenging classes. Furthermore, these individuals may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms like excessive drinking or self-harm as means to alleviate their distress.

Identification is the first step toward managing feelings. People experiencing distress can start by discussing them with friends and family; talking may make people feel less alone while encouraging other peers to open up as well. Those experiencing extreme isolation and distress may benefit from practicing mindfulness techniques such as journaling or meditating to bring themselves back into the present moment and reduce voices in their head.

According to Dr. Valerie Young, there are five types of imposter syndrome:

The expert mindset measures expertise by how quickly a person can perform a task or achieve an outcome; this type also equates to failure if they don’t understand something or don’t get a task done successfully the first time around. A nit-picker might micro-manage their performance or paralysis them into avoiding a task that could be a challenge for them. People-pleasing may make people feel unable to balance work and personal life, and procrastination might lead them to feel like small steps must be taken before the next step can be done.

For many people, these feelings can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, says Geneva Reynaga Abiko, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and author of Overcoming Imposter Syndrome. As she explains, it’s important to differentiate between the imposter feeling that occurs inside your head and systemic prejudices that operate outside of your own consciousness.

She believes that most of the time, it’s easier to recognize a negative self-talk pattern and consciously change it rather than try to overcome it. This is particularly useful for students who might be more susceptible to this type of thinking because they often talk to themselves in academic settings, where they are unable to share their thoughts with others.

In addition to being aware of your self-talk, you can also choose alternative actions when you notice the pattern starts to arise. For example, instead of responding to a compliment with “Thanks, but…” or “I’m sorry that I was so bad,” you could respond with “Thanks, but…”

By recognizing and changing the way you think about your achievements, you can begin to see them for what they are: true accomplishments.

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