Impostor Syndrome

What We Hide Fuels Impostor Syndrome

When we talk about impostor syndrome, we usually focus on self-doubt, perfectionism, or fear of failure. But there is another cause that is quieter and more personal. It might be the most emotionally charged and least talked about: feeling you have to hide parts of yourself.

A recent study by Kruskie et al. asked first-year medical students a simple but powerful question:

“What part of your identity did you feel you’d have to change to become a physician?”

More than half of the students shared something deeply personal: where they grew up, who raised them, family circumstances, cultural background. All things that, to them, felt out of place in medicine’s “ideal” image of a physician (Kruskie et al., 2024).

These were not stories about lacking skill or intelligence. They were stories about belonging and the fear that acceptance required hiding parts of themselves.

This is not just a medical school thing. Many of us carry early experiences of exclusion or “otherness” into adulthood. When we step into spaces that stir up those old feelings, especially around people who seem to belong more easily, it can awaken a deep, shame-fueled thought: I don’t belong here.

Here’s the thing: hiding those parts of ourselves only convinces us they are incompatible with success. The more we try to edit them out of our story, the more fragile our sense of self becomes.

The real work is turning toward those experiences with compassion. Not erasing them or making them more “acceptable,” but seeing how they have shaped our values, resilience, and perspective. Then bringing them into our identity—not as flaws to manage, but as sources of depth and authenticity.

When you carry your full story into the room, you don’t just belong. You help expand what belonging can look like.

If you want to read the full paper, you can find it here: Kruskie et al. (2024) Investigating Feelings of Imposterism in First-Year Medical Student Narratives.