Yes. It’s called Imposter Syndrome! It’s incredibly common (REALLY common), especially among women.

Imposter Syndrome is a state of mind in which you are convinced that your successes and accomplishments are either just because of luck or circumstance, or that they don’t exist at all and that you’ve just fooled people into believing you’ve accomplished something. It’s very stressful because you’re also convinced that people are going to discover that you’re a fraud.

One way to avoid “being discovered” is to outwardly downplay and devalue your accomplishments. This way, you’re telling people to expect less of you so they won’t be disappointed in you later on.

Another way to do this is to avoid taking on professional/academic projects that might help your career. If you’re convinced you’re going to be found out as a fraud, you’re not going to try to compete with a qualified coworker for the same high-profile client, are you?

And then, of course, you create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you never try to move upwards (because you’re convinced you’d fail), people will stop providing you with opportunities to do so. If you downplay your accomplishments, people will believe that your accomplishments aren’t so great and will treat you that way.

And what’s so frustrating is that, well, you’re NOT a fraud. You haven’t fooled anyone–there’s no lie being told. You really DID do all those great things. You really ARE capable. It wasn’t luck or chance or circumstance–it was you!

If the original post describes how you feel, I urge you to look up Imposter Syndrome and start treating yourself better!