It’s hard, but we should all ignore ‘imposter syndrome 35

Who among us has not felt, from time to time at least, a little out of it? Who hasn’t felt like they were really putting their arm on the line a bit and not being adequately qualified or good enough?

I know I’ve felt that way at times. Impostor syndrome, pervasive and unwavering feelings of self-doubt, is a plague of modern life, made even worse by social media where we constantly compare ourselves to an idealized version of other people.

Now, this is not an official psychiatric diagnosis. It is not a disease. But there is no doubt that the phenomenon exists and can have a significant impact on people’s lives. I think most people experience it at some point.

Except, of course, if you’re Catherine Zeta-Jones.

She said last week in an interview that she had never felt imposter syndrome, at least not when it came to acting.

And it’s perhaps a sign of how often women put themselves down that she felt the need to add: ‘I hope [that] doesn’t sound cocky.

Well, it doesn’t. In fact, good for her, I’ll have some of what she’s having.

You might think that it helps that Catherine is beautiful, successful, and rich, but these things don’t protect you from the lingering doubts of impostor syndrome.

Michelle Obama has confessed to having it, for God’s sake. In fact, Zeta-Jones went on to say that while she didn’t doubt her acting abilities, she had always worried that she wasn’t beautiful enough. In which case, what hope is there for the rest of us? Impostor syndrome is particularly prevalent among physicians, and much of the research has been done on physicians.

We have an idealized notion of doctors in our heads: they are super knowledgeable, authoritative, in control during life and death situations.

The reality, of course, is very different.

I remember in my first week as a junior doctor, I would walk into one of the wards when an emergency was developing and one of the nurses would look up and exclaim, ‘Thank God the doctor is here.’ For a split second I was relieved too, until I realized they were talking about me.

I didn’t feel like a doctor because I was very aware of how much I didn’t know. My only certainty was that he did not coincide with the fantastic ideal of the doctor who knows everything.

I still feel this way almost daily. I face it by refusing to dwell on it and accepting that all doctors continue to learn throughout their career.

It is often assumed that imposter syndrome affects women more than men.

It is reasoned that, in a patriarchal society, women feel inferior and less entitled to success, so when they reach positions of authority, they conclude that there must have been a mistake or that they were lucky.

But research shows that these feelings of inadequacy—the fears that they’ll be “found out” at any moment—affect women and men in equal measure.

The difference is that men often won’t admit to having them. I think that’s why there are so many bad bosses.

People who try to bury their self-doubt sometimes overcompensate by being bolshier, demanding, arrogant, or rude. It’s a way to cover up the feeling that they don’t really know what they’re doing. They deflect blame when they make mistakes and put off doing some things entirely for fear of being ‘exposed’.

But for many other people, this constant and unsettling feeling that other people are better than them only serves to hold them back in life.

Think of what we could all achieve if we could just shake off these miserable feelings.

As you look around the room at the office party this month, try to remember that you deserve to be there just as much as anyone else and that you are valued for the skills you have.

We can beat impostor syndrome if we take a leaf out of the Zeta-Jones book and silence that treacherous little voice of doubt.