One of the most recognisable Spanish singers, with decades of sold-out halls and millions of records sold behind her, recently admitted something that hardly fits into that biography: for years she felt like she was lying. "I felt that I couldn't sing, that I was lying," said Malú, describing a state psychologists know well, but the public rarely sees behind the scenes.

When one of her albums succeeded and they proposed a tour, instead of joy came tears - she told her mother she had deceived them all. Behind her performances, she admits, she built a protective character: a "character, a mask" to survive the exposure before so many eyes. Shy and insecure by nature, on stage she had to be someone else.

What she describes has a name - impostor syndrome. Psychologists define it as the feeling that you're deceiving others, that you don't deserve it all even though you have all the qualifications, and as a constant fear of a mistake that will expose you. It isn't reserved for singers and stars; doctors, professors and engineers carry it - people with proof all around them who still don't believe in themselves.

According to the psychologist commenting on the case, the relationship with yourself is built early - from how others looked at us at the start. If instead of compassion we were met with demands and expectations, a feeling of permanent dissatisfaction is planted in us, no matter how much we achieve later. The bill from childhood is paid in adulthood.

Malú says therapy gave her tools and helped her understand the roots of the insecurity. And here is the point worth more than any star's statement: healthy self-confidence doesn't mean insecurity vanishes, but that the relationship with doubt changes. You don't stop doubting - you stop letting doubt decide instead of you.