How To Deal With Imposter Syndrome

Bazaar India speaks with four women on what gets them going in the face of doubt and low self-worth...

- Humra Afroz Khan

Do you ever find yourself questioning your professional merit, despite having proved your capabilities time and again? Or wonder if you even deserve the promotion you’ve just received? If yes, (and statistics say there is a high chance it’ll be a yes), you are hardly alone. Even the most phenomenal women among us have, at some point in their lives, struggled with low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy.

Experts describe this phenomenon as Imposter Syndrome, first introduced in 1978. The syndrome, essentially, is one’s inability to believe that they deserve the success they have achieved, or that their growth truly is because of their hard work and skills. Instead, the focus shifts to the idea that one’s achievements are simply due to sheer luck, good timing, or a misplaced confidence of the boss—and that people will soon find out and unmask them for who they ‘really’ are. “Imposter Syndrome is the experience of feeling like a ‘fraud’. And the fear that you’ll be caught or exposed is so strong, one tends to be constantly under pressure,” Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapy practitioner, Mahima Bhatnagar, tells Bazaar India. “This can eventually snowball into more overwhelming emotions, starting with intense guilt, anger, doubt, etc.” she adds. Mahima is the founder of Nandri Healing, a platform for holistic regeneration, and concentrates on issues of mental health and emotional dis-regulation. Many of her clients, she tells us, suffer from Imposter Syndrome. “A woman once told me, ‘Every morning when I wake up, the first thought that comes to my mind is: Did I do something wrong yesterday?’. That is the kind of anxiety the sufferer holds within—of being misaligned.”