The universality of mental suffering is one of the most humbling truths about human existence. While privilege can shield people from certain specific stressors—financial insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, unsafe living conditions—it cannot protect against the fundamental vulnerability of being human.
The Paradox of Privilege
Privileged individuals also experience distinct forms of psychological distress:
- “Existential anxiety” becomes more prominent when survival needs are met. Without immediate threats to focus on, people turn inward and confront questions of meaning, purpose, and mortality. The philosopher’s luxury of asking “why am I here?” can become a heavy burden.
- “Pressure to justify privilege” creates intense guilt and impostor syndrome.(2) Many struggle with feeling they don’t deserve their advantages, leading to chronic self-doubt and fear of being “found out” as unworthy.(3)
- “Isolation despite resources” is particularly painful. Money can buy therapy, but not a genuine connection. Privileged spaces can feel performative and competitive, making it difficult to be authentic and vulnerable. ( link to isolation YouTube video )
- “The tyranny of unlimited choice” creates paralysis. When every option is available, the weight of choosing “correctly” becomes crushing. Each path not taken represents a failure to optimise one’s advantages.
Stress and anxiety don’t calculate net worth before arriving; they are a human constant. It manifests differently across circumstances but remains persistent:
A CEO experiences panic attacks about quarterly earnings while a factory worker has panic attacks about next month’s rent. Both are real. Both are debilitating. The nervous system doesn’t distinguish between types of threat—it simply responds to perceived danger.
Relationship struggles, health concerns, grief, ageing parents, difficult children, loneliness, fear of death—these touch everyone regardless of economic status.(7)
A penthouse doesn’t prevent heartbreak. Education doesn’t inoculate against depression.
At Tatava Studio, Psychologist Aarti Ahuja offers a transformative approach to these universal struggles through her work. Her perspective emphasises that impostor syndrome, particularly prevalent among the privileged, stems from a disconnection between one’s authentic self and the persona they believe they must maintain.(1)
This approach recognises that impostor syndrome is not simply about lacking confidence—it’s about the exhausting effort of maintaining an identity that feels borrowed or unearned. (2) This chronic self-doubt creates a barrier between who we are and who we’re trying to be, leading to persistent anxiety and emotional exhaustion.
Through self-transformation sessions at Tatava Studio, clients learn healthy detachment—not as emotional avoidance, but as a way to observe their thoughts and feelings without being consumed by them. (4)
This practice of detachment helps individuals:
– Separate their worth from their achievements or social position
– Recognise intrusive thoughts about inadequacy without identifying with them(5)
– Build a stable sense of self that isn’t dependent on external validation
– Release the compulsive need to prove themselves worthy of their circumstances
Why Self-Transformation Matters
Traditional approaches often try to convince people they’re “good enough” through affirmations or evidence of competence. This methodology goes deeper, helping clients transform their relationship with themselves entirely. Rather than fighting imposter syndrome, individuals learn to dissolve the false dichotomy between “real” and “fraud” that creates the syndrome in the first place.if you recognise these patterns in yourself—the persistent feeling of being an imposter, the inability to detach from anxious thoughts, or the sense that privilege somehow makes your suffering less valid—professional guidance can be transformative.
Tatava Studio offers specialized self-transformation sessions designed to address these specific challenges. Working with Aarti Ahuja, you can develop practical tools for managing imposter syndrome and cultivating healthy detachment, allowing for genuine peace and authentic self-expression.
Book a session at www.tatavastudio.com to begin your journey toward self-transformation and emotional freedom.
Book button with the line: Begin your journey toward self-transformation and emotional freedom.
Understanding that suffering is universal doesn’t diminish anyone’s pain—it should expand our compassion. The person in the mansion with crippling anxiety needs help just as much as the person in the shelter with depression, even if their material needs differ dramatically.
This recognition can also combat the toxic narrative that people “shouldn’t” feel bad if they’re privileged, which only adds shame to suffering and prevents people from seeking help. (5) Emotional pain doesn’t require justification through hardship.
The goal isn’t to equate different experiences but to recognize that privilege solves some problems while creating or revealing others, and that the capacity for psychological suffering is part of being human, not a failure to appreciate one’s advantages properly.
References
1. American Psychological Association. (2023). “Imposter Syndrome: Characteristics, Causes, and Coping Strategies.” APA PsycNet.
2. Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention.” Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241-247.
3. Sakulku, J., & Alexander, J. (2011). “The Impostor Phenomenon.” International Journal of Behavioral Science, 6(1), 75-97.
4. Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Bantam Books.
5. Neff, K. (2011). Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. William Morrow.
6. Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Henry Holt and Company.
7. Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. Bloomsbury Press.
8. Luthar, S. S., & Latendresse, S. J. (2005). “Children of the Affluent: Challenges to Well-Being.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(1), 49-53.
Contact Tatava Studio:
- Website: www.tatavastudio.com
- Phone: +91 76783 41364
- Email: tatvalifestylestudio@gmail.com
- Timings: Monday to Saturday
- In Person: 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- Tele Counselling: 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
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“The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief—But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love.”
Hilary Stanton Zunin
