What is impostor syndrome? The term was coined in 1978 by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes.

Although it is not a clinical disorder per se (as it is not classified nosologically in any medical or clinical diagnostic treatise) the impostor syndrome is specified as the psychic and emotional dissatisfaction that has been directly related to the individual emotion of not being worthy of the place (and/or recognition) that the patient is occupying or enjoying (as a result of his personal abilities) at the work, academic and social levels.

Imposter Syndrome-An Unrecognized Disorder

So, if this condition is not classified in the different clinical diagnostic manuals, how is it possible to talk about it? It is due to the fact that a series of clinical symptoms that cause emotional distress have been grouped under this term, which, due to its characteristics, differs from the known and classified disorders, but generates anguish in the patient.

Epidemiology does not distinguish between professionals and non-professionals, nor between men and women, and approximately seven out of every ten people have suffered from it at some point in their lives .

This syndrome usually appears in students with excellent grades and, to a greater extent, in successful professionals; its appearance is known to have a high correlation with the individual’s low self-esteem and poor self-concept.

A pathological modesty

Another important factor for their appearance is usually the derogatory or critical attitude of people who share the environment of the disturbed subject who envy his achievements.

The person who finds himself suffering from such a condition feels that he is never up to all that he enjoys as a result of his success and capabilities. The individual has the persistent feeling of not being good enough at what he does, as well as being labeled as useless or incapable; furthermore, he accuses himself of being an impostor, a complete fraud in everything he does.

In this syndrome, the patient most certainly assumes that his success is a matter of chance and luck and never because of his own intelligence and abilities.

Symptoms

Some of the most common symptoms are as follows:

  • The constant belief that achievements and successes are not deserved ; the individual considers that such successes are due to luck, to chance, or to other people within the circle in which they develop and that they consider more powerful than they have helped them to achieve them, thus devaluing their individual capacities.
  • Recurrent lack of confidence in one’s own competences.
  • Permanent fear that others who may be “fooled” by the individual will discover his “fraud”.
  • Constant insecurity and lack of confidence in the academic, labour and social fields.
  • Persistent expectations of failure safe in similar situations which have been successfully overcome by the individual himself in previous events.
  • Low self-esteem .
  • For no apparent reason, negative symptom pictures appear such as: anxiety, sadness, hopelessness, etc.

How do you get over it?

Interestingly, this feeling of not being sufficiently prepared disappears as time goes by and the individual gains more experience in the field in which he or she operates .

To overcome the condition, it is important that the individual does not reject or ignore compliments or congratulations, he must accept them, they are the fruit of his effort!

It is important that the person helps others, so that, by obtaining a joint result, he or she will be able to shape his or her thoughts when he or she realizes that the other person has achieved his or her objective through the intervention of the person suffering from the syndrome, thus gradually uprooting the false idea that success is due to chance .