The College Perspective by Lindsey

Two men.

Two demanding majors.

Two very different lives.

At first glance, both students’ rooms have sparse decorations, gray color schemes, and a general lack of excess personal belongings, typical of many male college students. This is one of only two similarities between the two men.

Austin is an introverted biology and chemistry double major pre-med student at Morningside College while Grady is an extroverted vocal performance major.

It may not seem like the two would have much in common, but they suffer from a similar condition known as impostor syndrome.

Often recognized as a side effect of anxiety or depression, impostor syndrome occurs when someone feels like they’ve tricked others into believing they are more successful than they are. Sufferers often do not feel like they deserve the titles they’ve earned and are afraid they will be outed as “impostors.”

While not a diagnosable condition recognized by medical books, therapists around the world are dealing with students who don’t feel like they deserve their degrees, titles, or grades in classes.

Bobbi Meister, LISW at Morningside College, deals with a lot of these issues in students but notices that mental issues like these are changing. “I think that the pressures nowadays, especially for you guys in college is more because college isn’t as novel a commodity as it used to be…there’s a lot of competition to find jobs and to somehow make yourself look better than the next person in line.”

Austin finds job interviews awkward, even with manual labor jobs like road construction, because they require you to “brag” about yourself and your skills, something he doesn’t feel comfortable doing.

Grady echoes this feeling but gives more credit to being raised in the Midwest, where people aren’t supposed to talk about their accomplishments.

Both Austin and Grady didn’t really experience impostor syndrome symptoms until they reached college.

“In college, I ran into the first classes that I’ve really struggled with. You know high school was pretty easy throughout, and this made me think that maybe I wasn’t ‘all that’ or that I’ve just had it easy up till now,” Austin said.

Grady didn’t quite have the breezy high school experience that Austin had, but college presented a new set of challenges for him. “Well I mean I had just started college so that was big. I was also changing my major what seemed like every week. Other than that not much was happening,” he said.

Even though it might seem obvious that the quiet, less confident student would struggle with impostor syndrome, often confident people are hiding their insecurities, like Grady dealing with a new environment and challenges with college-level classes.

Impostor syndrome is often an isolating experience. Many students, especially men, don’t feel like they are able to talk about their issues. Both Grady and Austin don’t tend to talk much about their struggles but Grady admits to talking things through with his fiancé.

Neither Austin or Grady have ever been to a therapist to address their issues.

Meister says of this discrepancy, “I think that women just in general tend to report or talk about these kinds of feelings or thoughts more than men would. Maybe it’s just the societal pressure for men to, you know, have it all together and you can’t talk about those things.”

Austin is no different from other men in how he downplays his feelings. “If I have anything like anxiety or depression it’s fairly manageable and not something that has been diagnosed,” Austin states.

Lauryn Feauto, a fellow sufferer, seemingly deals with her impostor issues like Austin and Grady, but she is more likely to talk about her issues with her friends and family.

“I’ve dealt with impostor syndrome by doing a more ‘fake it till you make it’ mentality and so far that’s been successful. I don’t really talk to anyone about it unless it gets really bad. It’s been a problem pretty much my whole college life, to be honest,” she said.

The men have turned more to internet research which outlines the five general categories of people who suffer from impostor syndrome. Through this method, both men feel like they have a problem, but realize that self-diagnosis isn’t the best method for practicing good mental health. Neither student has immediate plans to see a therapist after talking about their issues.

Since impostor syndrome is not recognized as a disorder, treatment for it is often varied and individualized. Meister uses a combination of techniques to treat students that come through her door. “What I tend to practice in my work is cognitive behavior therapy and basically that’s helping the person understand how your feelings and thoughts and your behaviors are all kind of interconnected. When you make a change in one area it impacts the other area.”

To Meister, it’s all about changing the way people think about themselves and matching their perceptions to reality.

To learn more about impostor syndrome or therapy services offered at Morningside College, you can contact Bobbi Meister by phone at 712-274-5606, email at meisterb@morningside.edu, stop by her office in the lower level of the Olsen Student Center, or schedule a therapy appointment at https://calendly.com/personalcounselor.

To contact Austin email him at atn003@morningside.edu.

To contact Grady, email him at gmk003@morningside.edu.

To contact Lauryn, email her at fallenonyx11@gmail.com.