Impostor Syndrome

Impostor Syndrome has feelings of being incompetent or a fraud.  There is a fear of being “found out”.  It feels like you are always looking up to a goal that is always out of reach.

Signs:

Hyper vigilance to cover up.

Scared that you really aren’t that smart.

Staying up all night to present facade of having it all together.

Being smart gives self-esteem in school but there may be confusion socially and emotionally.   After leaving school the measures of being smart or successful change.
Anxiety in maintaining something that is slipping through your fingers.  Clinging to the external identity of being smart creates obsessive clinging to achievement and performance.

Dirty little secrets.

Perfectionistic and rigid.

Indications

Anxiety
Perfectionism
Hyper-vigilance –
Obsessive – way to success.

Worried about going too far. Too intense. Must reign in intensity and regulate emotions. Regret over saying or doing things.

Feeling inappropriate.

Feel stupid because they weren’t able to do

Find continuum where they they don’t measure up as well.
I could have done more.
Hard to find a way to re-frame with acceptance and compassion.

New challenges are treated as threats. They create a sense of being frantic or overwhelmed.

You’ve found ways to compensate.

The struggle within. Processing is chaotic and time consuming with ADHD.

No matter how you try to reconcile what you think as ideal it beats you up.

The demands create shame.
We think of superhuman traits but we have to remind ourselves that all superheros are also flawed.

Core of your identity is being smart.
Self-loathing.