Imposter Syndrome: A Product of Anxiety or Oppression?
You get hired at a new job, and no one can stop talking about how great you are. Colleagues you haven’t met yet already know your name and excellent reputation. Your new boss tells you that they’re looking forward to what you bring to the organization.
The compliments are flattering, but you can’t help but feel uncomfortable. You feel like a phony or a fake; any day now, your new colleagues will figure out that you’re actually not everything they think you are.
Does this sound familiar? These types of feelings are what people refer to as imposter syndrome. But more and more experts are pointing out that it can be problematic to label everyone as having imposter syndrome, especially women and people of color.
Here’s what imposter syndrome is, how you can step back from it, and why it’s 100% normal to feel this way.
What is imposter syndrome?
Almost everyone has felt it, at least to some degree. The term “imposter syndrome” was first coined back in the 1970s. Research since then has found that, perhaps ironically, high-achieving people are more likely to have imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome isn’t actually a mental health disorder, and you can’t be diagnosed with it. But the label “syndrome” does make it sound like a mental health problem, which we’ll touch on in the next section. In reality, imposter syndrome is completely normal. It’s also more common than you might think — up to 7 in 10 people admit to feeling it. It’s important not to blame yourself if you’re having these feelings.
Characteristics of imposter syndrome
So how can you tell if you have imposter syndrome? There is no test or assessment you can take that will tell you definitively if you have imposter syndrome.
But some of the characteristics of imposter syndrome include:
Feeling undeserving of accolades and praise
Being afraid that you won’t, or can’t, live up to others’ high expectations of you
Feeling like you’re only “pretending” to have it figured out
Overachieving — working extra hours, for example, to “make up” for the incompetence you feel
Doubting yourself and your abilities
Having a tendency to dismiss the hard work you’ve done — and attribute your successes to “dumb luck” or other external factors
Self-doubt
Perfectionism
Feeling like a fraud
People usually think about imposter syndrome at work, but you can feel like an imposter in any area of your life. For example, you could be afraid that your romantic partner will soon find out that you’re undeserving of them and leave you. Or you might feel like you actually have no idea what you’re doing compared to other parents, even though, in reality, you’re successfully raising a child.
Consequences of imposter syndrome
Some people might think that living with imposter syndrome isn’t so bad. Maybe you feel like your fear of being “exposed” helps you to work harder and achieve more.
But, in the long term, this is almost never the case. That’s because the cycle of imposter syndrome is impossible to break out of in this way. You’d think that working hard and achieving more would give you the confidence you needed to stop feeling like an imposter.
But imposter syndrome isn’t satisfied with hard work, achievements, or praise. In fact, it’s usually the highest-achieving people who tend to be affected by it in the first place. Gathering more and more achievements might actually make your imposter syndrome worse if it isn’t dealt with.
Plus, studies have suggested that having imposter syndrome can increase feelings of burnout while also decreasing job performance and job satisfaction. It can also lead to real mental health disorders, like anxiety and depression.
Is it imposter syndrome or a product of oppression?
But there’s a very real drawback to the idea of “imposter syndrome” that needs to be addressed, and that’s this: for people of color and women, lack of confidence and feelings of inadequacy are mixed in with and strengthened by the very real existence of institutionalized oppression.
To brush these feelings off as just imposter syndrome puts the blame for these feelings on the individual, and not on the systems that have caused them.
Harvard Business Review released an article about this phenomenon titled, Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome. In it, the authors write: “Imposter syndrome took a fairly universal feeling of discomfort, second-guessing, and mild anxiety in the workplace and pathologized it, especially for women.”
We can see this in the label itself: imposter syndrome. “Imposter” is a term, the article’s authors remind us, that usually invokes the slight feeling of criminality. And “syndrome” makes it sound like this very normal feeling is a sign of mental illness, which can label these women as “hysterical.”
This isn’t to say that men, even white men, don’t get imposter syndrome. But women, especially women of color, have few workplace mentors who look like them. They’re overwhelmed with racist and sexist microaggressions every day at work.
In other words, they’re made to feel unwelcome and inadequate, and just labeling them with “imposter syndrome” doesn’t factor in how institutionalized oppression keeps these groups down in a very real way.
Stepping back from ‘imposter syndrome’
If you’re finding that feeling like an imposter is impacting your general mood and work performance, then there are ways to step back from these thoughts to perform better and, most importantly, take care of yourself and your well-being.
Try asking yourself the following questions:
Are these thoughts I’m having about myself -- that I’m a failure or a fraud – helping me to move towards what matters to me? Can I let myself refocus on what does matter to me?
How much time and energy do I give to proving, both to myself and others, that I ‘deserve’ my accomplishments? How else would I like to use that time and energy?
What are the real ways that institutional systems have worked against me or pushed me down? Despite this, I have gotten to where I am today. Does that mean I don’t belong, or that the systems have tried to exclude me?
Am I the only person who feels this way? Who do I respect? Can I talk to them to see if they’ve felt this way, too?
You might also consider talking to a therapist about these feelings. Again, imposter syndrome isn’t a mental illness. But therapy isn’t just for people with a mental illness, either. Our clients come to us for all sorts of different reasons, from mental health issues like depression or anxiety to life problems like relationship and work challenges.
If you’re interested in therapy in the D.C. area, please get in touch with us today.
