There is no actual syndrome. It describes a very common feeling, especially in high achieving people. The term was coined in an article, which I actually read all those years ago when I was a very young woman doing a difficult and highly responsible adult job. I still thought of myself as a kid and wondered how the hell I'd fooled the higher ups into putting me in charge.
Impostor Syndrome is a clever term that resonates. It's a great short-hand way to describe a feeling many people have at various times in their lives.
Quote:
Psychological research done in the early 1980s estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds and other studies have found that 70 percent of all people feel like impostors at one time or another. It is not considered a psychological disorder, and is not among the conditions described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The term was coined by clinical psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes in 1978.[1]
People who have reportedly experienced the syndrome include screenwriter Chuck Lorre,[3] best-seller writer Neil Gaiman,[4] comedian Tommy Cooper,[5] business leader Sheryl Sandberg, US Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor,[6] and actress Emma Watson.[7]
Even Albert Einstein suffered from the syndrome near the end of his life. A month before his death, he reportedly confided in a friend: "the exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler."[8]
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If up to 70% of people experience it, I'd call it a normal feeling of self-doubt, not a syndrome. In my case, that self-doubt was good because my job actually gave me a lot of power over other people and my doubts made me willing to question whether or not my actions were in the best interest of the people involved. Of course, they couldn't always be. But it was important to act fairly and with full disclosure. Self-doubt didn't harm me, it motivated me to make the best decisions I could. It kept my feet on the ground.
The question is whether or not you let normal self-doubt turn toxic, gnawing away at your self-worth. If the answer is yes, then maybe talking to a counselor about the self-doubt and gnawing would be a good idea.