Stop the Burnout Podcast

Epi 50:

Imposter Syndrome (Part I): Why More CE, Training, or Experience Still Doesn’t Fix the Doubt (& Real Solutions That Do)

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Imposter syndrome is incredibly common in veterinary medicine, and in this episode, we break down the neuroscience behind it and how chronic stress and burnout amplify feelings of self-doubt, even when you are highly competent.

You will learn why more education and experience do not resolve imposter syndrome and how your fight-or-flight response plays a powerful role in how you interpret your performance.

This episode focuses on short-term, practical strategies veterinary professionals can use immediately to manage self-doubt. Tune in next week for Part II, where we dive into long-term solutions to help you banish imposter syndrome for good.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

00:05 – Why imposter syndrome is so common in veterinary medicine & other high-achieving professionals
02:00 – The surprising statistics around imposter syndrome and why many colleagues experience it silently
04:00 – Why gaining more CE, experience, and competence does not eliminate self-doubt
06:00 – How chronic stress and burnout influence how your brain interprets your performance
08:00 – The role of the nervous system and fight-or-flight response in imposter syndrome
10:00 – Why uncertainty in veterinary medicine can trigger threat responses in the brain
12:00 – How your brain scans for mistakes and perceived threats under chronic stress
15:00 – Short-term strategies you can use in the moment when imposter thoughts arise
18:00 – Reframing how you interpret uncertainty and mistakes in clinical practice
21:00 – Why imposter syndrome is not a knowledge problem
24:00 – How Part II will focus on long-term solutions to reduce imposter syndrome

Key Takeaways

Imposter syndrome is extremely common in veterinary professionals & high achievers.
Feeling like a fraud is rarely due to a true lack of knowledge or skill.
Chronic stress and burnout change how your brain interprets competence and mistakes.
Gaining more experience alone doesn’t eliminate imposter syndrome because the root is internal and often subconscious.
Short-term awareness and cognitive reframing can reduce the intensity of imposter thoughts while deeper long-term work addresses the underlying patterns.

A Truth You Need to Hear:

“Imposter syndrome isn’t a reflection of your competence. It’s a reflection of how chronic stress and subconscious patterns are shaping how your brain interprets your competence.”

Links mentioned:

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S2 Epi 50 Transcript: Imposter Syndrome (Part I): Why More CE, Training, or Experience Still Doesn’t Fix the Doubt (With Real Solutions That Work)

[0:00:05]

Welcome to Stop the Burnout, a podcast for veterinary professionals who love medicine but are exhausted by the people, pressure, expectations, and the constant mental loads that comes with it. If you've ever thought I shouldn't feel this strain doing something I care about, you're not alone and you're definitely not broken. I'm Doctor Amber Parks, a veterinarian turned stress and burnout coach, and here we talk about the stuff that no one taught us, like how to actually break the stress and burnout patterns once and for all and how to stay in this profession without losing yourself.

You won't find bubble baths, toxic positivity, or self-care fluff pretending to be the solution here. Let's get into it.

To another episode of Stop the Burnout. Imposter syndrome. That's what we're talking about today, and this is part one of a two-part mini-series on imposter syndrome. But we're doing it through the lens of how it relates to chronic stress and burnout as well as what we can do in the short term to help kind of work through that.

Then in part two we're going to go into long term. How do we get rid of this as much as possible?

So if you're listening to this podcast you're probably aware of good old imposter syndrome, but it's kind of something that statistically it says that seventy percent of the population experiences imposter syndrome at some point in their lives.

And I know that number is even higher for high achievers like you folks, veterinary professionals.

And we do see it more in women than men, but it does happen in men. And a staggering eighty-five percent of women have actually not spoken about this to someone at work and how they're struggling with imposter syndrome because they fear that it makes them look weak.

[0:02:05]

And if it's eighty-five percent of women that means your colleague that sits next to you is probably dealing with the same exact thing.

So I bring that up because now we have to recognize that okay, I'm not alone in this.

But also when we talk about imposter syndrome I think a lot of people think that it's because they don't know enough or they don't have enough experience or they need to learn more.

And I want to challenge that idea a little bit because if that were the case then every veterinarian who graduated veterinary school and practiced for a number of years would eventually stop experiencing imposter syndrome.

But that's not actually what we see happen.

What we see happen is that people gain more experience, they gain more CE, they gain more clinical competence, and yet they still feel like they don't know enough or like they're going to be found out.

[0:04:02]

So what's actually going on here?

Why is it that we can objectively be competent and capable but internally still feel like we don't know what we're doing?

A lot of this actually comes back to how our brain interprets stress and threat.

When we're under chronic stress our brain is constantly scanning for things that could go wrong. It's trying to protect us.

And so when you're in a profession like veterinary medicine where there are high stakes, uncertainty, emotional clients, and complicated medical cases your brain can easily interpret situations as potential threats.

[0:06:01]

When that happens your nervous system activates that fight-or-flight response.

And when your brain is in that mode it is not prioritizing rational confidence. It's prioritizing safety.

Which means your brain may start interpreting normal uncertainty, normal learning curves, or even small mistakes as evidence that you are not good enough.

And that is where imposter syndrome can really take hold.

[0:08:02]

So what do we do about that?

In this episode we're focusing on short-term strategies.

Because while we can talk about deeper rewiring and long-term solutions, which we will do in part two, it's also important to have tools that you can use in the moment when those thoughts start creeping in.

When you're in the middle of a shift.

When you're dealing with a complicated case.

When a client questions your decision.

When you start thinking what if I mess this up.

[0:10:02]

One of the first things that can help is recognizing what is actually happening in your brain in that moment.

Because when your nervous system is activated your brain is not trying to evaluate your competence.

It's trying to protect you.

And that protection can show up as hyper-vigilance, overthinking, second-guessing yourself, or feeling like you need to prove that you know what you're doing.

But understanding that this is a stress response can help create a little bit of distance from the thought itself.

[0:12:01]

Another helpful strategy is learning to separate uncertainty from incompetence.

Veterinary medicine is full of uncertainty.

Cases are complex.

Patients can't talk to us.

Clients have emotions, financial limitations, and expectations.

And none of that means that you are incompetent.

It simply means you're practicing medicine.

[0:14:01]

So when those thoughts come up that say maybe I don't know what I'm doing, it can be helpful to pause and ask yourself what evidence actually supports that thought.

Because often what you'll find is that the evidence isn't actually there.

Instead what you're seeing is a brain that has been trained by chronic stress to look for potential mistakes or threats.

[0:16:02]

And the goal here isn't to force yourself to think positive thoughts.

That's not realistic and it's not helpful.

The goal is simply to recognize the pattern and start creating a little bit of space between the thought and your identity as a veterinarian.

Because a thought that says what if I mess this up is not the same thing as a fact that says I am incompetent.

[0:18:01]

The goal here isn't to force yourself to think positive thoughts.

That's not realistic and it's not helpful.

The goal is simply to recognize the pattern and create a little bit of space between the thought and your identity as a veterinarian.

Because a thought that says what if I mess this up is not the same thing as a fact that says I am incompetent.

[20:00]

Over time learning to recognize those patterns can reduce how powerful those thoughts feel.

But this is where we start getting into the deeper work that we're going to talk about in Part II.

Because while these short-term strategies can help in the moment, they don't necessarily change the underlying stress patterns that caused the brain to interpret things this way in the first place.

[22:00]

In Part II we're going to talk about how chronic stress patterns develop and how they shape the way we interpret our experiences and performance at work.

And more importantly how we can start to change those patterns over time.

Because imposter syndrome is not simply a knowledge problem.

And it's not something that automatically disappears once you gain more experience.

[24:00]

It often has deeper roots in how our brain and nervous system have learned to respond to stress.

When we start to address those patterns we can begin to reduce that constant sense of self-doubt.

[26:00]

This is why focusing only on gaining more knowledge or experience doesn't always solve the problem.

Because the brain is still interpreting situations through the lens of threat and stress.

And until we start addressing that underlying stress response, the pattern can continue.

[28:00]

So part of the work is learning how to recognize when your brain is going into that threat mode.

When you can recognize that, you can begin to respond differently instead of automatically believing every thought that shows up.

[30:00]

And this is also why many high-achieving veterinary professionals struggle with imposter syndrome.

Because the more you care about doing a good job, the more your brain may interpret mistakes or uncertainty as something dangerous.

[32:00]

But the good news is that these patterns can change.

When we start understanding how the brain works and how chronic stress affects our thinking, we can begin to shift how we interpret those experiences.

[34:00]

So if this episode resonated with you, make sure you tune in next week for Part II where we dive into the long-term strategies for reducing imposter syndrome and breaking those chronic stress patterns.

Because the goal isn't just to cope with imposter syndrome.

The goal is to actually change the patterns that keep it showing up.