Nobody ever tells you that the more successful you become, the worse imposter syndrome gets. That sounds backward. There were low stakes initially, and with that, little expectation.
However, now you have a history of achievement to draw memory from. You are so reliable that everyone trusts you to make decisions and even gives you real responsibilities.
And every time someone believes in you, that voice saying “You don’t belong here” is getting so much louder.
And that is the cruel irony of imposter syndrome – so many talented, hard-working, fully capable people waste half their careers waiting to be discovered.
So What Actually Is It?
It was two psychologists, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, who gave it a name all the way back in 1978!
They were researching high-performing women at universities and discovered that, unusually for such successful and well-educated women, the private beliefs of those women were that they were impostors. Not occasionally. Persistently. It was only a matter of time before someone caught on that they hadn’t actually earned any of it.
Clance and Imes referred to it as the “impostor phenomenon,” and the subsequent studies surrounding the term also revealed that it’s not solely a woman’s problem or an academic-based issue.
According to the Korn Ferry 2024 survey, 71% of U.S. CEOs indicate that they have imposter syndrome. CEOs. Individuals with big responsibilities whose decisions affect industries. Still sitting in board meetings, wondering if today’s the day someone finally calls them out.
Why Does Anxiety Get Tangled Up In All This?
Imposter syndrome is primarily regarded as a confidence issue by most people. Or perhaps excessive humility. However, that is not an accurate framing of what it is – this is a legitimate anxiety response.
Continual self-doubt has consequences, and it can affect how people function day-to-day in physical ways and lead to anxiety, depression, burnout and low self-esteem. Sleep. Focus. Energy. Relationships.
This matters because it affects what really helps with anxiety. If you think it’s just a confidence issue, you’ll reason yourself out of it: You have earned your seat at the table, you’re going to talk through it again with all those impressive credentials.
And perhaps that works for one day or two. Then a big presentation lands on your calendar, and the spiral starts again. You weren’t dealing with a thinking problem. You were dealing with an anxiety pattern.
High-performing environments reward the appearance of certainty. Admitting doubt feels dangerous, so people mask it, cultivating a polished exterior even as the internal experience is anxiety. Over time, the gap between public persona and private experience widens, and that gap itself starts to feel like proof of fraud.
Who Gets Hit Hardest
Transitions are the biggest trigger. Starting a new job, getting promoted into a role that stretches you, joining a program where everyone else seems to know exactly what they’re doing. Being the “new person” can make you question whether you truly belong or have the skills to succeed.
First-generation professionals deal with a particular version of this. You’re often the first in your family to reach a certain level, which means there’s no map. No one to call and ask “Is it normal to feel this way?” Every room you walk into is one nobody in your family has ever walked into. Your body registers that as a low-level alarm that keeps asking whether you should really be there.
For women, people of color, and first-gen professionals in spaces not built for them, it’s not just “Am I good enough?” It becomes “Am I good enough to be here?” That’s a heavier question entirely.
Perfectionism feeds it too. When your internal bar is set at flawless, every normal human mistake feels like proof that the fraud story was right all along.
What It Looks Like
Consider the guy who prepares obsessively for a meeting he could, without break, have orchestrated and performed, not because he’s thorough, but rather because he’s mortified of being blindsided.
Or the co-worker who always deflects praise, making every “great job” into “the team really pulled this one off.” The employee who never speaks in meetings despite clearly knowing more than 50% of the room.
They externalize their success instead of internalizing it, attributing wins to luck, timing, rather than ability. Success never hinges on competence, so confidence never grows. Each time you hit the next challenge, it sets off the same cycle again.
What Really Helps
A few things genuinely move the needle here.
Keeping real evidence of your work matters more than it sounds. Not a vague sense that things went okay, but actual documentation, saved emails where someone expressed specific appreciation, notes from a project that landed well.
Psychiatric providers actually suggest this because when the anxiety is at its loudest, facts are much easier to argue against than emotions.
Naming it dismantles the silence that perpetuates the cycle! More often than not, the individual suffering from imposter syndrome believes they are the only person in the room who feels this way – they’re almost always wrong.
Just saying it out loud to even one person you trust helps.
Imposter syndrome is something to pay more serious attention to when it is impacting sleep, causing you not to pursue opportunities that you actually want, or spiraling into chronic anxiety.
There is a lot of research backing cognitive behavioral therapy for this kind of work. You combat the root cause of the anxiety, which is those beliefs, instead of slapping positive thinking on top.
When It’s Time to Talk to Someone
The version of impostor syndrome you can learn to live with. And there is a version that takes over and runs someone’s life month after month, year after year, determining what they pursue and how much pride they take (if any) in anything at all.
If you’re in Richmond, VA or anywhere nearby and this is hitting close to home, the team at Compassionate Healthcare & Wellness Center works with people dealing with exactly this! Our licensed therapists and psychiatric providers offer individualized psychiatric evaluations, individual therapy and evidence-based treatment for anxiety, in person and via telehealth.
Learn more about our mental health services here.
You’ve already done the hard work of getting where you are. You deserve to actually feel like it.
FAQs
Is imposter syndrome an actual diagnosis?
No. It’s not in the DSM. But it’s a well-studied psychological pattern that co-occurs regularly with anxiety and depression.
Does it ever actually get better on its own?
Sometimes, especially with mentors or changed environments. But for people with chronic anxiety underneath it – the pattern tends to persist until something directly addresses it.
I’m a guy, does this apply to me?
Yes. It was first studied in women and women of color in competitive fields do experience it at higher rates. But it crosses genders consistently. That 71% of CEOs statistic? CEOs skew heavily male.
For more on this topic, the American Psychological Association’s coverage of impostor phenomenon is worth reading. For anxiety-related resources, the National Institute of Mental Health is a reliable starting point.