Impostor syndrome, sometimes called fraud syndrome, is a “psychological disorder” in which successful people are unable to take in their achievements.
They suffer a great deal and feel dizzy, with a sense that they don’t deserve it, when they are given a promotion, a responsibility or an improvement in their life.
They assume their success is a matter of luck and don’t put it down to their intelligence, their talent or the fact that they have had to work very hard to achieve it.
This disorder is caused by learning and lived experiences.
It is more likely to affect people who faced significant criticism throughout their childhood and youth. People who have experienced situations in which significant figures, such as parents or relatives, belittled their abilities, character and behaviour.
Nothing they did was ever good enough, and now they have a “Jiminy Cricket” in their head that is constantly making demands of them.
With this disorder comes a search for perfection, an impossible and unrealistic perfectionism.
Cognitively, they attribute their successes to external causes. For them, success is magic or luck, but failure is entirely their own fault.
If you recognise yourself in this, don’t stay there: you can stop feeling like an impostor. I’ll walk alongside you so you can learn to enjoy being yourself.
