After reading Rachel Smith’s article - I haven’t experienced imposter syndrome, and maybe you haven’t either, I found myself guilty of making false diagnosis on myself. It became the norm for every developer to say they have imposter syndrome and it got me wondering, is this an added bonus to the profession? Or is it just another way to prove developer humility?
Whatever it was, I soon succumbed to it and I believed it so well that I had to buy an imposter’s handbook - which I don’t regret buying anyway. But it didn’t just end with imposter syndrome for me. I grew up as a normal child, not the smartest, and not dumb either. What I didn’t grow up as was a child with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
While I sympathize with people that actually have these symptoms and disorders, I don’t want to share it with them. I’m happy the way I am, but my words and actions didn’t prove that because I let myself slip into thinking relatively. Whenever I mandate myself to complete things I started or keep things decent and organized, I would say my actions are caused by my OCD. My OCD? when did this become a thing I own?
I get lost in thoughts like every other human sometimes and at some other times I’m so focused on one thing - I get in the zone, and it makes me inattentive to every other thing around. This is yet another normal human behavior but I would say I missed out on what someone was saying because of ADHD. No please! This was absolutely wrong and didn’t even correlate with the actual meaning of the term ADHD.
Either you name yourself with these disorders and symptoms you’ve not been diagnosed with or they are used on you by people around, it is best to stop yourself/stop them. As Rachel mentioned, we would only be minimizing the impact of these things from people that actually suffer from them, making the society pay less attention and less care to actual victims.
Save yourself, save the afflicted, save the world. Don’t be what you’re not!!