What Is Imposter Syndrome? Causes, Signs, and How to Overcome It

What is imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome is the feeling that we are not deserving of our own success and that it is instead due to coincidence or other outside factors. This can occur often with both large and small achievements. When this takes root, we can put ourselves down or assign the credit elsewhere, like on luck or other outside factors. This can ultimately have a negative impact on our self-worth. 

Why do we develop it?

People who develop imposter syndrome often grew as high academic achievers in households where they were praised for their natural gifts. People who grew up in high-achievement households can often struggle to meet their own standards in adulthood. When we believe that our skills are something we are born with or have inherently instead of growing and developing we may detach our personal association with our skill. 

Who is most impacted by it?

This is most prominent in people who are high-achieving, identify as perfectionists, or even people who are viewed as highly skilled at a specific task. Anyone can be affected by imposter syndrome, however, it is most frequently present in populations of people who identify as women and people in racial minority groups. These specific populations are impacted since there is an underlying social construct that these classes may be lower achievers or less educated. While this is untrue, it can sometimes bleed into our own mindsets about ourselves. 

How can we overcome it?

Imposter syndrome is something we can work on by using tools to help us learn that we are deserving of our achievements. 

• Share your feelings with others, they may reflect how they perceive you

• Allow yourself to not be perfect, and that is alright! We are all human. 

• Learn from mistakes. Mistakes are what help us learn to do better. Mistakes are a great opportunity to learn new things and try different things. 

• Have self compassion. Sometimes we are harder on ourselves than anyone else. If we try to treat ourselves how we would speak to our loved ones, we may start to feel better.

Do I belong?

If you got into a difficult job or class, remind yourself that you do deserve to be there. While sometimes our brains like to be convinced of other things, our talent shows up even if we aren’t aware. You do deserve the things you have accomplished even if you have a hard time believing that due to imposter syndrome.

Ellie Staples

Ellie is an undergraduate intern for Flourish Counseling & Wellness. She is currently a fourth-year student at Colorado State University, majoring in psychology with a concentration in clinical counseling. 

Ellie hopes to continue her education in graduate school this fall with a goal of becoming a licensed therapist working with children and adolescents. 

Remington is a 2.5 year old medical alert service dog. He has been doing service work for the last year and a half, and he hopes to one day to add therapy dog to his list of skills.