- Hey everyone, Myles Best here, journalist, functioning imposter, and host of Above the Noise.

Yep, you heard that right, functioning imposter.

Or at least sometimes I feel like an imposter.

Now don't get me wrong, I love hosting this show, and work hard to make it as good as it can be, but still, every once in a while when I'm sitting down at the computer and about to start writing the next episode, I get this nagging feeling that I'm not talented enough to pull it off.

That I'm this fraud and I'll be found out at any minute.

Now, before y'all go adding comments to reassure me that you like our episodes and that we're doing great, you need to understand that there is a name for this feeling, imposter syndrome.

It's the pattern of thought that can take hold of your brain and really mess you up.

It can dial up your anxiety, it can contribute to feelings of depression, and just kind of leave you feeling isolated and different from everyone you go to school or work with.

Now I looked at the research and imposter syndrome can affect all different kinds of people.

You can be a first year college student who arrives on campus thinking was my acceptance just one big mistake?

Or you can be a super famous, super successful person who no one would possibly think could feel like an imposter, like Einstein.

He's reported to have said, and I quote, the exaggerated esteem in which my life work is held makes me feel ill at ease.

I feel compelled to think of myself as an involuntary swindler, basically, the smartest person in any room ever didn't feel like he belonged there sometimes.

And that's what's so weird about imposter syndrome, being successful doesn't make you immune, instead, the more success you have the more fuel there is to believe you're just fooling people into thinking you know what you're doing.

So, I want to know, why do we feel like imposters sometimes, and what do we do about it?

The first important thing to understand is that imposter syndrome is not its own diagnosable condition.

You won't find it in the DSM, which covers all the different categories of mental health disorders.

That's because it's usually thought of as a symptom of a larger problem, like depression or anxiety.

Because of this, mental health professionals actually prefer the term imposter phenomenon.

The word syndrome just kind of makes it sound like an illness.

I was really curious to understand how these imposter thoughts pop into our brains and that's how I learned about what researchers call the imposter cycle.

Now drop a comment if you can relate to this.

Let's say you've got this big project or assignment you gotta do for school or for work.

That plants the seed of anxiety and self-doubt that you're not gonna get it done, or you're not gonna do it well.

As the deadline gets closer, you get down to business and seriously over-prepare, or if you're like me, you procrastinate.

Then enter a frenzy of preparation at the last possible moment, either way you get the project done.

You even do it well, you ace the assignment.

Or you get a congratulations from your boss.

Clearly it was a success, but a person with imposter syndrome ignores and pushes away that positive feedback.

It wasn't skill or talent or intelligence that created the success, it was the over the top effort, or sheer luck.

That leads to self-doubt, and feeling like a fake.

And when it's time for the next project, the cycle starts all over again trapping you in this feeling of being an imposter.

Now I can totally relate to this cycle, I've definitely been caught in it before, while writing Above the Noise episodes, and that may be when I understand what specific kinds of thought patterns or personality traits might put someone at risk for feeling like an imposter.

So I did some digging, and came across the author Valerie Young who's considered an expert when it comes to understanding imposter syndrome.

And she lays out what she considers to be five main imposter types.

Now you can be one, or any combo of them.

First up, type one is a classic, the perfectionist.

They set super high expectations for themselves so even if they succeed at 99% of their goal, they think they failed because of that one percent that wasn't successful.

Any mistake, no matter how small, makes them question their abilities and create self-doubt.

And that can allow the imposter syndrome to sneak in.

Type two is the expert.

They need to know every piece of info before they get started on a project.

And they tend to base their self-worth on how much they know.

So if they don't know something, that can make them feel incompetent, which can open the door to feeling like an imposter.

Now type three is the natural genius.

Everything's supposed to come easy, it's supposed to be effortless.

If they have to work hard at something or it takes a while to get it, that means they're not smart or talented enough which for them is proof that they're an imposter.

Type four is the soloist.

They have to do everything on their own.

It all has to be done 100% unassisted.

Asking for help is a sign of weakness, and might expose them as a failure or a fraud.

And finally we have type five, the superhero.

They have to push themselves to work harder than everyone else to prove they're not an imposter, but overworking is just a cover for their insecurities that they're not smart or talented enough, and that can lead to, yep, you guessed it, feeling like an imposter.

I know you gotta relate to at least one of these.

For me, I'm a combination of the soloist and the natural genius, you know I hate asking for help, and I hate having to try too hard to do something.

Now most of the research that I found on imposter syndrome focuses on the individual, and I mean that makes sense, we're talking about feelings and thoughts that happen in our individual brains.

To a certain extent, the genes we're born with wire us in a particular way, and then our unique experiences from childhood up through being an adult add on to that.

But there is research showing that factors outside of an individual person can be important too, like being a part of an underrepresented group.

For example, a woman in a male dominated profession, or the first person in their family to go to college.

Feeling a sense of belonging helps with confidence, but if there aren't people around who look like you, or sound like you, or have similar experiences, it can be easier to feel like you don't belong.

- I think a very good example of that is my computer science class where I heard people talking like oh I'm just gonna ask my dad to look at this code for me because he's a software engineer, and I'm sitting over here struggling with the same problem set, but I have a dad that's a truck driver and always busy and not able to even understand English.

So that difference is really there, and once again, that feeling of I'm not belonging here, or I'm not going to succeed here, or I'm not designed to be here definitely continues to be a thought in your head.

- That's Steven, a first generation low-income college student, and the son of Chinese immigrants.

That background contributed to his imposter syndrome during his first year at Stanford.

And, almost prevented him from pursuing a major in computer science.

STEM courses in college can be really competitive, and most research shows that the more competitive the environment, the greater the chance that imposter syndrome can pop up.

But that research also shows that first gen students specifically are more likely to experience imposter syndrome than students that had one or both of their parents attend college.

- It's like oh my God I'm so behind, oh my God I don't have any preparation for this.

I took one computer science class in high school, I'm not gonna be able to compare myself to any of these students.

How am I able to succeed in this student body that's already so far ahead.

So for me I just had to push back computer science for such a long time, which ended up being my potential major now, but just that imposter syndrome just like computer science is not gonna be built for me, it's not gonna let me succeed in something I just don't fit into.

- And in case you're wondering what imposter type Steven most identifies with.

- So there are a few I kind of relate to, but definitely the strongest one is a soloist.

I hated asking for help, I still kind of do, because I mean, for me the feeling is like you're revealing weakness.

You're revealing that you don't know what you're doing.

And that's something you definitely don't wanna show right?

- Now, I wish I could offer you some super quick, super easy solution to boost your confidence and kick your imposter syndrome to the curb forever.

Hey Myles, you're awesome.

You're smart enough, you're good enough, and darn it, people like you.

But I think it's important to realize that the goal is not to never feel like an imposter, instead it's to reduce the impact so the feelings don't hijack your brain.

You want imposter moments, not an imposter life.

One way to do this is to think about how you generally frame the beliefs you have about yourself.

If you have a fixed mindset, then you believe you have a finite level of intelligence, talent, and raw creative ability that can't be changed.

It's carved in stone.

Now that can lead you to avoid challenges, give up when things get hard, even feel threatened when others have success.

A fixed mindset can allow imposter syndrome to take over.

Now a growth mindset, that's the opposite.

Your beliefs about yourself aren't stuck at a certain level forever, they can change and grow.

Failure isn't evidence that you're not intelligent or talented, it's an opportunity to learn and stretch your abilities.

Now does that mean that everyone with this mindset thinks that they can be the next Einstein or Stephen Hawking?

No, that would probably be delusional.

But the growth mindset means that in the end, a person's true potential is unknown, and that is kryptonite for imposter syndrome.

Another tried and true method to combat imposter syndrome is to talk to other people about imposter syndrome.

Remember, feeling like a fraud requires you to think that you're fundamentally different and not as good as the people around you.

If those other people also feel like an imposter sometimes, you might be less likely to feel like an imposter too.

Now colleges are starting to understand that this is really important for their first generation students.

Believe it or not, one out of every three drops out after three years.

So, colleges are creating peer to peer support groups so imposter syndrome doesn't stay hidden, and that really helped Steven.

- One of the best parts of being a first generation low income student is the community.

And even within the student body itself, we're very open about our backgrounds.

We're very passionate and prideful of where we come from, and being able to express feelings like imposter syndrome but among a variety of different things and know that someone else is dealing with the exact same issues you are, and that is not just you, it helps bring a bit of comfort to you.

This is like now I'm not the only one struggling, I'm not the only one feeling this way, maybe I can do this class, maybe I should try to go into this field.

And even if I find a moment where I'm like I don't know if I'm built for this, I just can't do it, there are people near me that I can go back to.

- Look at you, sticking around to the end of the video.

Thank you.

Now we covered what imposter syndrome is, the five different imposter types, how factors outside of the individual can contribute to feeling like an imposter, and we offered a couple strategies to fight against it.

But now, we want to hear from you.

Have you felt imposter syndrome before?

And if you have, how did you deal with it?

Until next time, I'm Myles Best, peace out.