Imposter syndrome is a problem that affects a large number of people–including many
premeds, medical students, and residents.
But what is imposter syndrome?
Why are aspiring doctors more likely to suffer from it?
And what can you do about it?
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
Imposter syndrome is the persistent belief that you don’t deserve your success.
You believe that you got to where you are in life, not because of your own efforts,
skills, or ability, but because of luck.
Individuals with imposter syndrome can often experience difficulty celebrating their successes
or accepting praise.
They can also feel like frauds and internalize their mistakes over their accomplishments.
These feelings can then lead to more serious issues such as burnout, anxiety, and depression–all
of which can have significant effects on one’s emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.
Although imposter syndrome is not categorized as a psychiatric disorder by the American
Psychiatric Association, there is a growing body of literature examining this phenomenon
and its prevalence among medical students, residents, and physicians.
According to research, about 25% of medical students and residents and nearly 30% of doctors
will experience imposter syndrome.
Doctors are also approximately 30% more likely to suffer from imposter syndrome compared
to similarly-aged individuals in other career fields.
Let’s explore the various causes of imposter syndrome, why it seems to disproportionately
affect doctors, and what you can do to mitigate it in your own life.
According to the literature, various factors may increase your chances of developing imposter
syndrome.
To start, family upbringing has been linked to imposter syndrome.
Research has shown that children who grew up with parents who were controlling or overprotective
may be more susceptible.
These children often receive a great deal of criticism during their childhood which
can lead to feelings of inadequacy and imposter syndrome.
This may offer one explanation for why there is a high prevalence of imposter syndrome
among doctors.
Familial and cultural pressures can have a significant impact on one’s decision to
pursue a career in medicine.
This pressure to live up to expectations can lead many students to feel like any academic
setback or failure will ruin their chances of getting into medical school and make them
a disappointment in the eyes of their families.
Certain personality traits have also been associated with the development of imposter
syndrome.
People who have perfectionistic tendencies are more likely to develop imposter syndrome.
These individuals often set unattainable standards for themselves and are incredibly self-critical
when they don’t meet them.
Even seemingly minor mistakes can cause significant distress.
Much like with familial upbringing, this constant feeling of “never being good enough” can
lead to imposter syndrome.
Neuroticism, which is the tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other
negative feelings, has also been associated with a higher incidence of imposter syndrome.
Perfectionism and neuroticism are common personality traits among doctors at all levels of training.
This makes sense given the competitive nature of medical school and residency admissions
as well as the level of responsibility that physicians have over their patients.
To get into medical school or match into your desired residency program, it can often feel
like you have to be perfect.
You need to have a high GPA, high MCAT and step scores, strong extracurriculars, and
glowing letters of recommendation.
If any piece of that puzzle is off, it’s easy to experience stress and anxiety about
your future career.
In addition, once you become an attending physician, even seemingly minor mistakes can
have serious effects on patient outcomes, so the mentality that you should be perfect
and never make mistakes is further reinforced.
Important life transitions have also been associated with imposter syndrome.
These are times of great change and learning that can make one question their life decisions.
Future physicians go through many of these transitional phases during their training–each
one with its own level of uncertainty.
College is a huge transition point for everyone.
While you may have done well in high school, college is a completely different experience
with its own unique challenges.
This is further compounded if you’re a premed as getting into medical school requires consistently
going the extra mile to stand out from your peers.
If we fast-forward to medical school, you’ll be surrounded by a cohort of academically-gifted
individuals and have to do even more to stand out amongst the crowd.
This competitive environment can make it easy to feel like your peers are always doing more
than you.
These feelings are further heightened towards the end of medical school when you apply to
residency and have to contend with the uncertainty of matching into your desired program.
Residency is yet another transition point for future physicians.
It is during this time that they gain increasing levels of responsibility and autonomy–which
comes with additional psychological stress.
In addition, over two-thirds of residents work greater than 50 hours per week and nearly
a quarter work more than 70 hours per week.
The workload during those hours is often challenging as well with nearly a quarter of residents
spending 11-20 hours of their week on unskilled or “scut” work.
The combination of high stress, long hours, and heavy workloads can easily break you down
and cause you to blame yourself for perceived inadequacies.
Once you complete residency and become an attending physician, however, the feelings
of inadequacy don’t necessarily end.
Now you’re suddenly the decision-maker and everyone is looking to you for the final say
in what to do.
Your choices will now have long-lasting effects on the health of your patients and the fear
of making wrong decisions can be crippling.
Now that we’ve explored some of the causes of imposter syndrome and why it may disproportionately
affect physicians, here’s what you can do about it.
The first step in dealing with imposter syndrome is to talk about it with people you trust.
Aspiring doctors often bottle up their feelings and have a paralyzing fear of talking about
their struggles due to the stigma associated with mental health; however, this is a mistake.
Ignoring your negative emotions is not an effective strategy to resolve them.
Although it may be tempting to only talk to your peers in medical school or residency
about these feelings, you should try talking to other people as well.
Friends and family outside of medicine often have much different perspectives, which can
be incredibly refreshing.
What aspiring doctors often forget is that getting into medical school, matching into
residency, and becoming a doctor are impressive in their own right.
It’s only when they compare themselves to other high-achieving individuals that it can
feel like it’s not a feat worth celebrating.
To learn more about the topic of mental health among doctors, check out our Doctors and Mental
Health Stigma video - link in the description.
Next, you should limit comparing yourself to others.
Although some competition can be a good thing and push you to become a better version of
yourself, fixating too much on what other people are doing can negatively affect your
perception of yourself.
There’s a trade-off between the two.
On the one hand, surrounding yourself with top performers can elevate your own game and
teach you things that you wouldn’t learn otherwise; however, consistently being around
top performers can also highlight your own shortcomings and lead to feelings of inadequacy
and imposter syndrome.
As Naval Ravikant once said, “If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people
who are more successful than you are, but if you want to be happy, surround yourself
with people who are less successful than you are.”
The trick is to find the balance between the two.
Surround yourself with individuals that push you to grow, but don’t forget about your
own accomplishments and how far you’ve come along your journey.
If you find yourself comparing yourself to others too frequently, one effective strategy
is to avoid social media.
Social media often propagates a false sense of perfection.
You’re only seeing what people want you to see and not all of the struggles they may
be dealing with behind the scenes.
As such, limiting your social media usage can help decrease feelings of inadequacy and
imposter syndrome.
Another effective strategy for coping with imposter syndrome is to practice acceptance.
Accept the fact that it is not uncommon to feel this way during your medical training
and it’s okay that you’re experiencing it.
You don’t need to try to make it go away overnight.
Instead, it’s something that you can give yourself the time and space to work through.
I have found that the harder I resist something, the more it grows in magnitude.
By trying to fight something, I am implicitly validating its existence and giving it more
strength.
It may sound paradoxical, but by learning to accept it and not fighting tooth and nail
to fix it, I’ve found that I worry about it far less and the magnitude decreases much
more rapidly.
It sounds cliche, but mindfulness and meditation can be another effective strategy to help
control your internal dialogue.
Ultimately, imposter syndrome is a story that you tell yourself.
It isn’t a real, physical phenomenon.
When it comes to these kinds of things, meditation and mindfulness give you greater insight into
your mind's inner workings.
It allows you to observe your own physical sensations and emotions from an almost third-person
perspective, which can give you more control over your own feelings and actions.
It allows you to put yourself back in the driver’s seat and not just be a passenger
to the constant chatter.
And that level of mental clarity can have profound effects on your life and your happiness
in addition to helping with imposter syndrome.
Thank you all so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out Doctors and Mental Health Stigma or this
other video.
Much love, and I’ll see you guys there.