Imposter Syndrome: A THREAD.

Imposter syndrome is prevalent among marginalized people, bc society sets low expectations for us, and whether knowingly or not we internalize them.

This pretty much explains why some ppl think they achieve bc their smart and capable, and they fail bc of luck our difficulty, whereas us marginalized folks are quick to think it’s the other way around.

It shows up in childhood in 1 of 2 ways.
1. You’re lauded for being exceptional, but unintended consequence is you begin to believe you should be perfect without difficulty. So when you fail or even have to try hard you think you’re a failure.

2. You grow up in someone else’s shadow, thinking you’re not the “smart one” so you overachieve, which brings you successes that you can’t really believe in cause you can’t escape the shadow.

Here’s how we perpetuate this as adults.
1. Hard Work - you run yourself ragged thinking it’s the only way to succeed, making the impending doom of failure your motivator. So even when you do succeed, you feel like it’s only bc you killed yourself trying not cause you’re smart.

2. Intellectual inauthenticity: you just stop saying your actual opinion, you people please thinking that if someone knew your actual commentary they’d think you less brilliant, and we gotta keep up this illusion we think w have going.

3. Charm: you just make the people love you, it’s a calculated game of well versed jokes and interest matching. And you tell yourself that you only receive praise for your work bc people like you as a person. #false

4. You’re scared of rejection: playground mentality reigns supreme and you think if you are confident about your intellect, ppl will push you down and try to lower you.

And the price we pay for all of these defense mechanisms is anxiety, depression, frustration, and low self esteem. So yeah imposter syndrome is very whack.

Here’s some ways to fight back.

1. remember you’re not alone. around

2. get around your fellow imposters and start affirming tf out of each other’s brilliance. You have all the receipts

3. Take self doubt out of your achievements. Instead of “I might fail” say i will succeed

4. Think of all the people you think you’ve “fooled” and imagine their responses and if you came clean and told them your entire career has been a deception, you’re really not smart. —— yeah they’re gonna be like which form of crack are you smoking? Relax you’re brilliant.

5. Start paying attention to your positive feedback and your response. Don’t negate your accomplishments just say thank you.

6. Don’t be afraid to succeed: you’ve been doing it all along. You are not a phony, you don’t need defense mechanisms to make it happen.

This has been an enlightening evening for me, and I hope this thread helps somebody. s/o to Clance and Imes 1976 for this important work.

Okay. Fin.