[SoupDragon]

It has been suggested that this fits me. I just wondered if anyone else has come across it and if it ever goes away?

[shezbut]

It sounds like low self-esteem to me. However, CalTech did refer to it in order to emotionally support those suffering. The following is their take upon things.

https://counseling.caltech.edu/gener...urces/Impostor

The gist of it:

Impostor syndrome can be defined as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. It is experienced internally as chronic self-doubt, and feelings of intellectual fraudulence...It is basically feeling that you are not really a successful, competent, and smart student, that you are only imposing as such.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by SoupDragon

It has been suggested that this fits me. I just wondered if anyone else has come across it and if it ever goes away?

here in the USA there is no such mental or physical health disorder/disease called imposter syndrome....

that said human beings are taught as very young children to play pretend,use their imaginations to pretend to be other people and characters. this kind of thing permeates our lives from what we read, watch on tv, go to a theater and you will find many people acting out the parts of other people and characters. theres even "fandoms' where some people emulate their favorite actors and themes as a way of life. examples the star trek trekies, elvis impersonators, and other impersonators of favorite popular persons. even on line we are told not to use our real names to make up someone and many people use identities on line that portray other people/characters/animals and such...

that said there are crimes related to people who steal anothers identity but its not called imposter syndrome. its called identity theft.

I dont know about other countries but here in america there is not yet such a diagnosis of imposter syndrome in the DSM 5.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by SoupDragon

It has been suggested that this fits me. I just wondered if anyone else has come across it and if it ever goes away?

here is a list of recognized mental disorders here in america as listed in the DSM 5

file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/DSM-5-TOC%20(2).pdf

maybe what you are asking about falls into one of these.

my suggestion if a treatment provider diagnosed you with this they can help clarify what they meant and which one of these mental disorders this problem fits into for you.

[hvert]

I think you have to work to overcome it. I don't think it goes away on it's own, but I think you can learn to get over it.

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by shezbut

It sounds like low self-esteem to me. However, CalTech did refer to it in order to emotionally support those suffering. The following is their take upon things.

https://counseling.caltech.edu/gener...urces/Impostor

The gist of it:

Fascinating. It seems to be a cognitive distortion.

[SnakeCharmer]

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.

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]

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.

[SoupDragon]

Originally Posted by SnakeCharmer

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.


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.

Thank-you, that has been reassuring to read. My T has always cautioned me against labels and this was something suggested to me by a different T. It so fed into my anxiety so to hear it normalised in your post is really helpful. Soup

[oliamble]

Originally Posted by SnakeCharmer

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.





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.

I have to throw in my 2 cents. Over the past 15 yrs I have been working in my current job and finally the opportunity presented itself to lead others as assistant supervisor and in a way it has taken me 9 months in the making as my current supervisor and boss kept pushing me to delegate (another way to say power over people). I have had self-doubts as well. I am an honest person and like to treat other with respect and dignity as a motto.

At first it felt strange be able to delegate, been able to tell someone "do this, do that", but it has been a month now and I feel more at ease. Cognitive I know I have to give a directive, correct someone, and or observe someone and do it all while not letting my words or presence affect the employee and this is where I fall sometimes into difficulties. I am told by higher up that I have to toughen up and at the same time my boss tries to tell me to use a lot of psychology.

Today I had to observe an employee and from the time before I was given my current position he was my co-worker, but from one day to the other I am above him. Something with work performance and I had to observe him. He got upset at me and made a statement to me in which I judged as improper and I had to reported to my supervisor and boss. He was taken into the office for almost 1 hour. After the emoter walked out of the bosse's office my boss approached me and told me simply that I had not done nothing wrong b/c he explained to the employee in question that that was my job and that all that I was doing came from the top-down (chain of
Command)

Well my boss try to give me examples of how to psychologically pass a point w/o Irving a person's feeling. By coincidence another employee happened to be passing by with improper dress code and right before my eyes my boss asked him "cool shirt, what doesn't it say in the back?", "I'm sure it goes with a collar shirt right?" And he told me "see I just made him realize he was improperly dress while pretending to tell him he had a cool shirt" I was like "WOW" that's the type of psychology I'm supposed to use as the employee I was observing felt offended by my presence during my observation of his performance.

Thx u for allowing me to share.

[eskielover]

I had an incident when I was an computer design engineer that would sort of fit what it describes. My technical work had ended on the project had wrapped up & there were no other technical spots available except for one that required the need for being competent in calculus which I wasn't capable in & had just squeaked by in college without really ever learning how it worked. The company wasn't getting in any new contracts as aerospace contracts were coming to a screeching halt.

So I ended up in the Policies & Procedures group, facilitating a group on how to keep track of software updates. I felt like a glorified secretary & hated the position more than I had ever hated anything I had ever done.....by Thanksgiving I was starting to have serious anxiety problems. The manager decided that every one in that department HAD to write up a proposal for the national conference that was being set up for the next April.......I got out every possible book & notes & I threw together all the fancy buzz words I had learned over those last 6 months. To my SHOCKED SURPRISE....I got a call from the group that was picking presenters right before Christmas break to let me know that my presentation had been chosen to be presented ......I had no idea what in the world I was talking about.....I just knew how to put buzz words together & BS my writing to sound impressive......but I guess they thought I really sounded like I knew what I was talking about. I never told the department manager that I got the phone call.

I had a total breakdown just after the first of the year & after the bad earthquake we had that January....never did go back to work & they had found out about the proposal being accepted & had to let them know I couldn't possibly do it.