People with depression often hold tightly to self-doubt

Many people struggle with anxiety or depression, and self-doubt often clouds how they see their abilities. These conditions can leave them trailing a lack of self-belief, making even everyday tasks feel overwhelming.

Scientists recently studied more than 500 people across two separate groups to get a clearer picture of why this happens. They uncovered intriguing clues about metacognition, which is our ability to assess our own thought processes.

Dr. Sucharit Katyal completed this work as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research and is currently at the University of Copenhagen.

Confidence in anxiety and depression

Researchers asked participants to perform tasks that involved identifying details and remembering key information. They used a playful computer game with a fictional town named Fruitville, where folks needed help picking and sorting various fruits.

At different points, an auditor showed up to offer either positive or negative feedback on how these tasks were handled. The team measured each person’s day-to-day confidence on specific jobs and compared it to an overall rating of how well they believed they did across all tasks.

Depression makes self-doubt louder

The experts found that individuals with significant anxiety or depression were not any worse at completing the tasks. Their actual results matched those of participants with lower symptoms of these conditions.

Despite this, people with anxiety or depression zeroed in on times when they felt less confident in their decisions. They largely brushed aside moments where they felt more assured, setting the stage for persistent low self-belief.

How overthinking affects daily choices

Metacognition – how we think about our own thinking – shapes many decisions we make every day. It influences whether we speak up in a meeting, try something new, or trust our memory in a conversation.

When this internal self-monitoring system is skewed, as it can be in people with anxiety or depression, it leads to hesitation, second-guessing, or avoidance. Even when the facts support success, the internal feeling of “not good enough” can win out.

Feedback shifts self-doubt in depression

Interestingly, everyone’s self-belief changed when they heard if they were right or wrong. Good news lifted people’s outlook, while critical comments lowered it.

Still, those with anxiety or depression remained stuck in lower overall self-belief. They seemed to ignore the brighter spots of their performance, even after receiving the same mix of positive and negative messages as everyone else.

Depression and imposter syndrome

“Overall, our findings offer a simple yet powerful message – that the persistent negative self-beliefs experienced by people with anxiety and depression are often illusory, and may be rooted in a dysfunctional view of how they evaluate themselves,” said Dr. Katyal. 

”This would also explain why anxiety and depression symptoms are also closely linked to imposter syndrome where some people persistently doubt their achievements despite being competent.”

Dr. Katyal emphasized the importance of not relying too heavily on our own self-judgments, especially when they tend to be overly critical.

He suggested that people should be cautious about how much they trust their internal assessments. Instead, they might benefit from giving more weight to feedback from others.

How to ease self-doubt in depression

Anxiety is a common mental health concern in the United States, and it can affect how a person perceives the future or reads social cues. Depression can drain motivation and self-confidence, leading individuals to feel incapable of tasks they can actually handle well. 

These findings highlight an avenue where individuals might train themselves to notice accomplishments in a more balanced way. Checking in with trusted friends, teachers, or coworkers could help counter the tendency to overemphasize mistakes.

According to the researchers, future strategies might include personalized feedback sessions to reinforce positive progress. By doing so, people could gain more accurate perspectives on their abilities and cut down on needless self-criticism.

Getting rid of depression and self-doubt

Struggles with self-confidence are common in classrooms and offices. A student may get high grades yet still feel like a fraud, while an employee might regularly meet deadlines and deliver results but second-guess every decision.

If people with anxiety and depression undervalue their own successful moments, they may be more prone to burnout, avoid promotions, or resist taking on new challenges.

Interventions that help individuals trust their strengths could be especially important in high-pressure academic or work environments.

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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