“How much longer can I fake my way through this? Everyone else here has it together and knows what they’re doing. It’s only a matter of time before they realise I actually don’t really belong here.”

At some point in their career, approximately 70% of people will experience thoughts like this. Yet, only 25% of people have heard of Impostor Syndrome. If you’re not aware of how common it is, you might go on continuing to believe that you’re faking it for the rest of your career. 

Impostor syndrome is the belief that you haven’t earned, or don’t deserve, your accomplishments, despite evidence to the contrary. It’s so common and widely experienced that calling it a syndrome might give people the wrong idea. 

It’s not a mental disorder but, rather, an experience or a psychological pattern. It seems to affect all demographics, irrespective of gender, race, age, or occupation, and it doesn’t seem to matter how objectively successful you are (in fact, it’s more common among higher status jobs). It’s not necessarily linked to low self-worth, either. Even Albert Einstein referred to himself as an “involuntary swindler”; believing his lifework didn’t deserve the accolades it received.

The Five Types of Impostor Syndrome:

The Perfectionist:

Anything short of perfection is seen as a failure. They always feel like something could’ve been done better (and that they’re uniquely failing at it).

Natural genius:

Feels that success should come naturally. Hard work and perseverance may be seen as negative traits or signs that they’re not actually competent and are imposters.  

Superman/woman:

Being competent equates to being able to juggle numerous roles and responsibilities at the same time. Failing even slightly at one role can cause them to view themselves as a failure, even when they’ve greatly succeeded in other areas. 

Expert:

Success equates to a large amount of knowledge and skill. They fear being exposed as an imposter due to a lack of knowledge in a given area.

Soloist:

Success achieved with assistance from anyone else is perceived as a personal failure and a sign that they are not really competent. 

What Causes It?

There seems to be a link between Impostor Syndrome and perfectionism. One theory is that people who are highly skilled tend to assume others are just as skilled. This belief can spiral out of control or become distorted over time when they experience a normal degree of failure while their peers don’t seem to be failing. 

Humans seem to share their strengths more readily than their weaknesses. This may be why Impostor Syndrome is becoming increasingly common in contemporary times, when we all share the best parts of our lives online and hide the worst parts. Everyone gains the impression that everyone else is competent. If everyone who experienced impostor thoughts (approximately 70% of the working population) posted them on social media, the thoughts might become normalised and people might appreciate how common they are. Maybe they would even question how accurate their own thoughts of fraudulence are when they learn that other people who seemed to be so competent are second-guessing themselves too. 

The term pluralistic ignorance means that everyone privately doubts themselves, but thinks they’re alone in doing so. Nobody’s sharing their self-doubt or failures, so it’s hard for us to know whether our own failures are normal. Workplaces often create cultures whereby it’s difficult to talk about failures. Nobody likes publicising their failures to their workmates, and it might be considered inappropriate to publicly attribute a failure to another individual. Consequently, failure gets swept under the rug and can seem rare. 

What Can I Do About It?

A problem shared is a problem halved

In some workplaces, there may be a high price to pay for sharing your failures. Keeping our failures secret reinforces our sense that failure is unique to us and deprives us of the opportunity to learn from such failure by constructively discussing it. If you have a workplace like this, discussing your failures—and especially your impostor thoughts—with friends who don’t work with you has been shown to reduce the symptoms of impostor syndrome. You’ll be helping yourself and them, if they feel the same.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

Research into what distinguishes successful from unsuccessful individuals in any given occupation found that failure is a necessary part of success. The most successful individuals tended to fail just as often as others, but they learned from their failures and adjusted accordingly for their next attempt. Being afraid of failure may lead people to avoid attempting the required tasks for success or put insufficient effort into the task in order to protect their self-worth in case they fail (e.g. “I only failed because I didn’t try, not because I’m incapable”). Reframing failure as a necessary learning opportunity on the path to success helps people understand that failure is not a sign that they’re incapable or an impostor.  

Speak to a Clinical Psychologist

If you can’t seem to shake your impostor syndrome, there may be other issues underlying it. Psychological treatment can help you gain insight into the root of the problem and learn skills to overcome it.