What is impostor syndrome? The illness you've probably suffered from without ever realising it
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Have you ever felt like a complete fraud at work, even if you've done something wildly successful and you're boss thinks you're great?
If you have some impressive achievements under your belt but still feel like you got where you are by luck, rather than hard work or talent, then you're not alone.
'Impostor syndrome' is the feeling of being a bit of a fraud - and the fear of other people realising it - even when you deserve all the success you have.
The most high-achieving of people are vulnerable to the illness .
Meryl Streep, who holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations of any actor ever, once said: "You think, 'Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don't know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this?"'
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Novelist, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou may have had impostor syndrome.
She famously said: "I have written 11 books but each time I think, 'Uh-oh, they're going to find out now. I've run a game on everybody, and they're going to find me out'."
Imposter syndrome is different to self-doubt, which everyone feels from time to time.
"Most people experience self-doubt when, say, starting a new job or opening a business or doing something new," says Valerie Young, author of The Secret Thoughts Of Successful Women.
"Self-doubt is certainly a part of impostor syndrome, but people who feel like impostors have a difficult time internalising their accomplishments.
"Instead, they attribute them to things like luck, timing or personality ('They only praised my painting because they like me')."
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As well as feeling unworthy of their achievements, people with a case of impostor syndrome often have unsustainable high self-expectations.
Valerie added: "They experience shame when they fail, which, depending on how they define competence, can mean anything from not knowing the answer to a question, struggling to master a subject or skill, having to ask for help, to some minor glitch in an otherwise stellar performance."
Billie Dee, a 27-year-old senior PR consultant, was plagued by feelings that she was a fraud after being denied a promotion at a previous job, when her boss stated that she wasn't "management material".
As it happened, she was poached for an even better job at another company - but the damage had been done.
"Despite achieving my absolute dream job, I was plagued by dread every day - I felt that I was there by mistake," she said.
"Every time I felt out of my depth, I'd remember what my old bosses had told me and I'd convince myself that maybe they were right."
Billie thinks the fact she is a woman and looks young for her age is also a factor.
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"People tend to assume I'm much more junior than I actually am", she said.
"I lost all my confidence in myself and my work and felt every meeting, every email was a charade," she recalls.
"I was in a constant state of anxiety at work. I felt that I was acting at being confident, pretending that I was someone important, when I wasn't. It was exhausting. Every day, I thought I was going to be fired. Even the good work I did, I had no pride in it and convinced myself my bosses were disappointed with it - even if they weren't."
It lasted around two years, during which time Billie even turned down the chance of another role.
"I had developed such a lack of faith in myself that I thought I'd let them down and humiliate myself," she added.
The feelings of inadequacy transgressed into her personal life too, which she says was a factor in the breakdown of her eight-year relationship.
Now, Billie believes she's overcome her imposter syndrome, and has even started her own business.
I still have days where I'm out of my depth and just thinking, 'What am I doing here', but after a few months of proving to myself that actually, I could do this all on my own, I managed to shake off the imposter syndrome. I don't have to fit into anyone else's ideals, which I think really helps."
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Hilda Burke, psychotherapist, couples counsellor and life coach, says imposter syndrome traits can be ingrained from childhood: "Most of us inherit a script from our parents about what we'll amount to - whether explicit or implicit.
"Some may have been endowed with the belief that they won't be very successful, that they're destined to just scrape by. If someone in whom those beliefs have been instilled does go on to earn millions, they might still feel that their success doesn't quite fit."
It can also develop later, after people have reached what they thought was the ceiling of their capabilities.
"The ego holds limiting beliefs about oneself; when those beliefs are shattered when we surpass what we thought was possible for us, that's when the sense of being an imposter can creep in," added Hilda.
"It's important to remember that what we tell ourselves about who we are, what we are capable of, is just created in our heads."