Psychology and Mental Health
How to Deal with Sudden Success Syndrome
Writers can have SSS too. Easy come, easy go!
Some people are afraid of failure, but sudden success can sometimes be more problematic than failure itself for our mental health. For example, some successful people fear losing what they gained suddenly and suffering dire consequences.
In this story, I touch on Sudden Success Syndrome (SSS), which is a psychological condition. It refers to an identity crisis when individuals gain unexpected success or become wealthy suddenly.
As a result, people experiencing SSS isolate themselves from friends, colleagues, and even family members feeling extreme anxiety and fear of losing their money.
Another term for this concept is Sudden Wealth Syndrome (SWS). This one is specifically about earning an unexpected amount of money, like from the lottery, or gaining wealth in various forms, such as from online sources.
Recognizing this syndrome is critical for our mental health and well-being. Symptoms are feeling an unexpected euphoria of the successful outcome followed by disappointment, anxiety, fear, withdrawal from engagement, and isolation from society.
I met some writers and bloggers whose content went viral for the first time. They had a euphoric state and expected the success to continue. However, some had disappointed, and even some were crushed and stopped writing and blogging entirely.
The root cause of this syndrome is experiencing unexpected success, which does not match the individuals’ personalities, belief systems, and expectations. Living with low self-confidence and low self-esteem for a long time and suddenly experiencing success out of nowhere creates identity confusion.
When we delve into the details of reasons for people experiencing SSS, we notice that fear of success brings significant stress. This fear can be conscious or, most of the time, manifest unconsciously.
Some unconscious fear causes people to sabotage their success. For example, responsibility and accountability fear people because they may create significant stress.
I heard stories of business executives and entrepreneurs who enthusiastically started their missions. However, when they face tremendous setbacks, the responsibility of dealing with difficult situations can cause them to sabotage their role manifesting as unacceptable behavior.
Another psychological problem with this syndrome is too much focus on the worst-case scenarios. This paralysis analysis causes extreme mental and emotional stress leading to burnout. When people experience life-threatening chronic stress, they make wrong decisions causing failure.
At the cognitive level, being aware of this situation is a good start. Finding ways to activate the neocortex — the thinking parts of the brain — and calm down emotional and reptilian parts of the brain can help us cope with this syndrome.
Another effective solution is to focus on self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-love. Then, we can see success and failure as normal parts of life. More precisely, we can see failure only as experience and success as a roadmap or a torch in the journey.
If you are a writer with viral stories or an author whose book got a best-seller status, you can cherish it. However, overthinking it with the fear of losing status can make the outcomes worse.
In addition, the brain cannot handle too much dopamine. It has to regulate it. To prevent the reduced ability to experience pleasure, we need to be aware of punishment pathways in the brain. If this situation remains untreated, it may cause significant mental health problems.
Life has ups and downs like an eternity sign. Not getting viral stories or best-selling status does not mean we fail. The universe operates based on uncertainty and randomness. So, luck comes and goes. Managing change is beyond our control. However, we can influence the outcome by focusing on the process. I call it creating serendipity by understanding the concept of karma.
A few years ago, I spent hours penning an article giving complete focus and attention to making it something valuable. However, the article gained only a few views. I forgot about it. However, after around six months, it went viral out of nowhere. It made me neither euphoric nor sad. I just felt serenity with gratitude.
However, I get euphoric during the process of creating in a flow state. Outcomes never excite me. The sheer joy of creating can bring more sustainable happiness than the temporary joy of the outcome. The successful result is the climax. We need to watch the decline. And prepare for success by investing in the process. Easy come, easy go!
In addition, keeping our expectations low can give us a healthy psychological state. If we get lucky, it is great. We can celebrate the blessing without obsessing and attaching it. If not, we continue working on our passion with gratitude. We never know when luck can knock on our doors. Some believe that it comes just before we are about to give up. So, giving up on our dreams is not a good choice.
Poverty is not dire at all. On the contrary, it is the source of inspiration for success and wealth most of the time. However, not doing anything by hiding behind poverty can be problematic.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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