IMPOSTER SYNDROME ,
Imposter syndrome causes people to doubt their skills and accomplishments. They doubt
others' high regard for them. They doubt their own history and track record.
You might have imposter syndrome if you find yourself constantly experiencing
self-doubt, even in areas where you typically excel.
Imposter syndrome may feel like restlessness and nervousness, and it may manifest as
negative self-talk. Symptoms of anxiety and depression often accompany imposter
syndrome.
Imposter syndrome might make you feel out of space in places where you belong or excel it
makes you self doubt your own abilities , you assume everyone knows what they are doing
their lives except you and even if you achieve something you chalk it up to good luck
As time goes on imposter syndrome can get worse and it can lead to drop in school and job
performances further it might increase burnout also imposter syndrome to an extreme
level might lead to anxiety and depression
But imposter syndrome is not all bad it sometimes can be an advantage like imposter
syndrome has actually improved interpersonal performance turns out when people think
that their competence is lower than other think they may be spurred to prove themselves
on an interpersonal level
Imposter syndrome allows us to question our assumptions about ourselves and helps in
gaining new insights it encourages us to stick with problems longer and makes people
more successfully it can be your greatest strength because it means you are conscious of
your ability it means you are aware where to improve and as you are aware you can act on it
and improve
Causes of imposter syndrome can be growing up in families that stressed achievement and
success and loathed set back also people who are perfectionist and do not accept anything
less than perfect and natural geniuses such people can also have imposter syndrome
women of colour are also prone to imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is of different types like perfectionist , superhuman , natural genius ,
soloist and expert
Now that we know what imposter syndrome is as this project goes on lets get deep on each
and every type of imposter syndrome and lets discuss its merits and demerits in more
detail
TOPICS
● Types of imposter syndrome
Positive and negative impacts of imposter syndrome
● Symptoms of imposter syndrome
How to deal with imposter syndrome
TYPES OF IMPORSTER SYNDROME
As we discussed before imposter syndrome has been divided into five types the perfectionist ,
superwoman / man , natural genius , soloist and expert these catagorzise were catagorized by dr
Valerie Young in her book the secret thoughts of successful women : why capable people suffee
from the imposter syndrome and how to thrive inspite of it
The perfectionist
Before we get into any further detail we need know what does being a perfectionist entails
being a perfectionist is when you set certain goals that are very high and when you do not reach
that goal you have deep sense of self doubt and you start thinking you are lacking behind
People who think this way don’t get to excited on their succes because they always believe that
they could sccuded more or that there was something they could have done better. they strive
for flawlessness and forget that as a human sometimes errors are acceptable
This type of thinking and can do some serious damage to you as your productivity starts to get
affected and it further lowers your self esteem you start seeing yourself as a fraud and there is a
chance of having performance anxiety too
The superhuman
Superhuman is another type of imposter syndrome superhumans always try to do more and
more and end up putting themselves under too much pressure in their mind they can never do
enough and they feel like there is always more to do
People who experience this generally think they are fakes amongst their colleagues and they
start getting insecure and start working too much which might jeapordize the other aspects of
their lives
The natural genius
This type of imposter syndrome talks about when people think that the sole reason that they
have achieved something is because of their intelligence to them succes has always come easily
because they believe they are naturally talented and they set high goals for themselves , they
dont fair well in competitive environments as it can be too much for them
People start feeling shame if they takes them too much time to understand a topic because to
them they were always a genius and they naturall set high expectations for themselves to them
taking time to get the hang of things is considered to be beneath them
The soloist
This type of imposter talks about how a person might feel the need to do everything alone and
they find it weak to ask someone else for support and in doing thai they end up overburdening
themselves and a lot of time they end up feeling isolated people who have deep sense of self
reliance may never feel okay with asking someone for help
The expert
This type of imposter syndrome is when someone has spent years learning about their field of
work and now they feel this sense to know eveerthing about it and this ends up in them
doubting their abilities and skills they have this fear of not having enough knowledge
Positive and negative impacts of imposter syndrome
Positive impact of impostor syndrome
While imspoter syndrome is mostly viewed in a bad light it has been proved by surveys that
when people think that they are not worthy of the things they have achieved they start workking
harder in order to prove themselves wrong
We tend to succeed more and more because of how much work we are putting into succdeding
many times imposter syndrome isnt something that is permanent some people slowly began to
know their self worth stop feeling like a fraud and accept their succes
Negative impacts of imposter syndrome
As much as imposter can give you that motivation to do your work it also leads to severe
anxiety as time goes on there is chancce that you might burnout one of the biggest issues with
imposter syndrome is that you keep on belittling yourself and forget your worth you start
feeling like an outcast in every environment which migt lead to social anxiety and then lead to
you isolating yourself from everyone
Symptoms of imposter syndrome
As i talked about earlier there are five types of imposter syndromes lets now know their
symptoms
The perfectionsit
1) You focus on every minute detail
2) You are scared too much of making a error
3) You have a extremely high bar set
4) You have an issue delegating
The superhuman
1) When someone crtizies you even if it is constructive critsitim you dont deal with it well
2) You always have an itch to work
3) You feel this sense of deep guilt when you take a break
4) You end up putting too much pressure on yourself
The natural genius
1) In the past you have sicced easily
2) You get a major set back when you suffer a setback
3) You belive succes comes naturally to you
4) You have set impossibly high expeatcions for yourself
The soloist
1) You have the urge to do everything by yourself
2) You consider yourself weak if you need assistance
The expert
1 ) you have the urge to succeed in everything
2) you constantly feel like a fraud despite you being knowledgeable
3) You sturggule with procrastination
How to deal with imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is when you start feeling like a fraud it a lot of times shows up when we get
new responblitites it can often lead to anxiety and guilt you slwoly start to not care about your
achievements and always think you could do better and this type of mentality ends up
increasing your problems
You should not only focus on our work when you succeed you should celebrate it and it will
help you understand your self worth you can also start anwalysing what you have learnt from
your success it is very nesscar that you understand your succes and celebrate it
You need to know what you are worth and understand what you have accomplisihed and you
need to start accepting the mistakes you make and learn from them you can also set goals but
the ones that do not put too much pressure on you , you need to focus on your succes and not on
your past mistakes , and know that making mistakes is natural to a human and that making
mistakes does not mean that you are any less worthy for what you have achieved
You need to realise that you can not succeed in every aspect and there will be setbacks and that
you can learn from those set backs you need to embrace and understand your own capabilities,
you should give yourself time to take rest and take breaks and then come back stronger
In overcoming imposter syndrome you need to have support system who helps you while your
struggling and helps you know your self worth
