Impostor Syndrome

People who experience impostor syndrome tend to internalise it and continue on despite the feelings or thoughts that they are experiencing. Talking about it with trusted others can help to normalise the phenomenon, help to understand that you are not alone, reduce the impact of your thoughts and creates opportunities for others to share how they see you.

According to Amy Morin, the best way to combat impostor syndrome is to teach others. If you are in a position to do so, you may look at becoming a PASS leader, run study groups with your peers or take up some casual academic work with your school. Check out the Verywell Mind Friday Fix podcast by Amy Morin on impostor sydnrome.

Look for evidence of your success. Identifying proof of your achievements and competencies can help to combat impostor syndrome. You could also use a reframing technique to gain a more balanced perspective whereby you create a list with two columns - evidence for your fear and evidence against your fear.

Thoughts are the lifeblood of impostor syndrome! There are a number of ways you can change and challenge your thinking.

• Celebrate your successes and small wins. If you receive positive feedback, do not rush to brush it off, instead reflect on how it makes you feel and try to improve the way you speak to yourself. External reminders of successes can also be useful, save a copy or print out that feedback and look to it to remind yourself of how others see you. Try to bask in your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem.
• Normalise your feelings but recognise that these are not facts
• Be aware of your internal dialogue and challenge autopilot responses
• Reframing techniques can be particularly helpful. An example may be if you receive a grade lower than you were expecting, you may jump to think "I am a failure." Instead, reframe that thought and find evidence to support that - i.e., "I am not always a failure" and evidence that could help to support that is the markers feedback on your paper, you submitted it on time, you didn't receive a fail grade, or that you submitted the paper despite what was going on at the time.
• Adjust your standards for success to help let go of perfectionism and to internalise your acomplishments. Allow yourself to make room for small failures to start believing that you cannot know everything or help everyone.
• Practice self-compassion - would you say the things you are saying to yourself to a friend? Chances are that you wouldn't, so why are you holding yourself to such high standards? Try to watch out for when your feelings and thoughts of being an impostor arise and how you respond to them, then adjust them. Try to be ok with where you are at right now irregardless of your success or accomplishments.
• Learn from your failures, rather than letting it define you.

Your success is not tied to your value!

Take active steps to enhance your awareness of your strengths – for example, identify your learning style and use specific strategies that match this when studying.

Make space for the imposter syndrome but don’t let it hold you back – jumping in despite these thoughts will give you more evidence of your capacity