Alesha Dixon says her Impostor Syndrome got so bad that "even picking up the phone" terrified her.
Alesha Dixon
The 40-year-old TV star suffered for many years with the psychological condition - which causes individuals to doubt their accomplishments and consider themselves to be "frauds" in their work and life - and at one point she became so "nervous" that even basic communication was scary.
In an interview with Femail for the Daily Mail newspaper, she said: "It was quite crippling, it was something that really did hold me back, massively. Picking up the phone made me feel so scared and nervous to the extent that sometimes I didn't do it. It could be anything, just picking up the phone to book a dance class.
"Something so simple to someone else I could build up as something huge, and my fear, or self-doubt, would stop me doing it."
Alesha knows that many other women suffer from the condition and she says the best way to combat it is to talk about it.
She added: "Actually, if you talk about it and share it, you realise, we can make sense of it. I'm not a freak, there's nothing wrong with me."
Alesha - who is pregnant with her second child with her husband Azuka Ononye - managed to overcome her fears by "throwing herself" into challenging situations.
Interestingly, the former Mis-Teeq singer thrives when she is filming live shows for 'Britain's Got Talent' because the energy in the studio drives her on.
She said: "Even though I was petrified of most things, I would still throw myself into it. And I think that's where the confidence came from.
"People ask me, 'Do you get nervous on live television?', and I actually prefer live television. Because I prefer to be in the moment, I love the energy of it. I don't fear something going wrong because to me, that's life and things happen, I embrace it in all its glory."
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