#former gifted kid burnout CHECK

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

the first people id thank in my oscar speech are those bitches on spotify making the MOST specific playlists known to MAN that I can troll through to find songs for my dnd character playlist

[neon-kazoo]

Master post!

Because I want to feel ✨ fancy ✨

Feel free make a request or ask to be tagged!

Hero/Villain snippets/stories:

A Rescue?

Hero’s Teddy Bear

Defiance

*Too Many Beds

A Blurry Encounter

That’s Not Help

The Art of Being a Good Hostage

Spy? (Spy: Part One)

You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid (Spy: Part Two)

*Chomp

Fall

A New Nemesis

Spontaneous Parenthood

Rain Check

HOT TO GO

This Is Love- *Run, Betrayal, and Bank Robbery

Vigilante Was Running

Pistachio Was Missing

Calling In Sick

A Silent Movie

Just a Kid

Overexertion

A Gambit

For the Greater Good

A Familiar Face

Bad News

Alone

Limits (Don’t Forget to Take Your Meds)

Pinned

Small Mercies

Achoo!

Ice Cream Truck

Former Hero Gets a Wheelchair

*Unnatural

The Point/Captured

*Hero and Villain Go to Build-a-Bear

Hero and Villain Go Tubing

Hero and Villain Go to Sky Zone

*Choo Choo/The Briefcase pt. 1

Honk Honk/The Briefcase pt. 2

Searching

Nobody But You

Hero/Villain ideas/prompts:

Chronically Ill Hero

Bargaining

Poetry/Vents: (themes of)

Long Slender Fingers (degenerative illness, gifted kid burnout/not living up to potential)

I Miss Being Warm (illness, loss)

I Want to Fail (failure, ruminating on mistakes)

No Lollipop (medical trauma)

themes are just my personal significance, anything is up for interpretation

*personal favorites

[trapper-faggot]

Jesus christ im a failure like i cant fucking do anything

like ffs im already so overwhelmed by school and im barely full time and ive only had 1 class so far

and people are out here going to grad school and having careers and im overwhelmed by school as an art major like ffs i only have one class thats going to require reading and writing and im dreading it so bad

also i cant even remember how to code like ever but any time i complain to my mom about my lack of a future in art and how i need a steady remote job she just goes like “well you can code like me” like its that fucking easy

and like i really need a job, like holy shit i need money but the only 2 times ive tried full time school and part time work the first time i quit the job after like a month so i wouldnt fail my classes and the second time i dropped out of college and didnt go back for 2 years so whats going to make this so different, especially with where my mental health is rn

and the fucking icing on the shit cake this is is im nearly out of my adhd meds, and the pharmacy is saying i filled them when I didnt and so i need to call someone and im worried im not going to be able to get more for a month cause theyre a controlled substance and they’ll just think im lying and selling them and meanwhile im losing my mind unable to think without them and my TWO mood stabilizers/antidepressants arent doing jack shit, i keep breaking down crying from stress and i barely have anything going on compared to most people like most people are like ‘yeah i worked while in school to make ends meet’ and im pathetic over here like ‘i lived at home unemployed due to the grace of my mom for half of my degree cause i cant fucking be independent apparently to save my life, even though my entire childhood i made ‘being independent’ a huge part of my identity

Oh and I need to figure out my student loans cause this term is going to cost 8500 cause fuck the american educational system

[mylordshesacactus]

Do you have any particular trends, themes or broad concepts that seem to run through your OCs?

lmao im being CALLED OUT

let's see. off the top of my head.

There's:

Benevolence ("Benny"), my tiefling bard, who's my only actual Lawful Good character because her father (the uh, former high priest of Tiamat, shh) taught her his ethical code and she cleaves to those Three Rules the way some people cleave to their gods. You know. The girl who views the world through an unwavering lens of power--who has it, who doesn't, how they use it. How they don't. Who flies into a seething rage when anyone abuses their power.

Sedge Burdock, whose life is lived by the words of the uncle who raised her: Cruelty dies in daylight.

Rinda Broadstone, founding member of Paladins Against Parasocial Relationships because there is no ethical way to be a paladin unless you're willing, at any moment, to walk away and lose the blessing of your god forever if they ask you to do something that's morally wrong. She also adopted her late sister's five children with zero warning and no time to prepare solely to prevent their abusive father from claiming custody after their mother died.

Atri, ranger-cleric of the Raven Queen, Order of the Breaker of Chains, whose entire religious purpose is uplifting the powerless and checking the powerful.

Ihz, the antisocial mule courier and dog trainer who silently, stubbornly dedicated her life to caring for the Forsaken--who compares the way the living have treated them to a whipped dog, who learns to bite hard and on sight because it's been abused and its warnings and requests for space ignored for so long that there was no other way to keep itself safe.

Talet, the werewolf rogue who adopted a traumatized teenage bard on sight, and refuses to kill on orders or to kill her personal enemies even when she can get away with it, because wanting something doesn't give you the right to take it.

Velshada Wolfsong, gifted kid burnout extraordinaire, mage prodigy who was pushed too hard too young by her well-meaning mother and teachers until she completely lost control of her powers, broke and ran away, and had a long and difficult journey to heal from her trauma in the care of an adult who treated her like the teenager she is and taught her to value things about herself other than her magical abilities.

Levaden Mountaincall, self-taught feral druid who refuses to join a Circle because she feels they value Preserving The Natural Order above saving lives and is furious that they treat "people" as the opposite of nature, rather than an integral part of it. Whose motto is "Sometimes the point of a fight is to have it. if you're only willing to fight for something when you think you can win, then you don't really care. Someone has to be willing to lock antlers with you."

Beverly Hale, the file clerk/assassin whose life's work is meticulously reconstructing the legal system of the Kingdom of Lordaeron so that she can figure out who inherited its debts and sue them for the 1500 gold Arthas Menethil owes her for destroying her apartment right after she put down the first month's rent. Yes, he also murdered her, but SHE came back and her GODDAMN MONEY hasn't. Also, she's unionizing the Val'kyr.

THERE IS NOOOO STRONG THROUGHLINE HERE NNNNNOPE.

I am COMPLETELY capable of creating RPG characters who are not defined by a searing hatred for abuse of power, a fierce undying belief in a duty of care, a bullheaded "no, you move" brand of understated defiance, and, if standing in front of literally any trauma victim, the willingness to dig in their heels and fight god rather than give an inch.

[foreverxdaydreaming]

so this is my life now... gotten to the point where i constantly feel either overstimulated or understimulated but never in some state of normalcy. im either so over that every little noise has me pissed off or so under i just can't fucking stay still...... so fuck it, just bought my first fidget cube and i hope it helps any. noticed today that if im not doing my usual multitasking bc i wanna rly pay attention to whatever show im watching or whatnot that i just kept playing with shit so im like... well don't you go breaking the buttons on your phone just fucking go buy a rubiks or squish or smth to play with ffs...... and then it hit me. like DUH fidget toys were invented for a reason. i always had those water slinky things or play dough or floam or those lil chinese paper toys you trap your fingers in when i was a kid.. and it wasn't until i stopped messing with all of those as an adult that i realized i always had some sort of stimulation nearby.... makes sense as to why i loved just painting all over myself or watching stim videos and just assuming i liked the aesthetic... but the fact that im constantly like "if im not doing at least 3 things at once rn I WILL DIE" makes so much fucking sense as to why my (now former) therapist was adamant about me getting checked for adhd...... as if me playing on twos separate game systems at the same time since i was little and getting called out for the incentive incessant pen clicking or doodling weren't a big ol red flags i avoided for ages on end..... i got shoved into gifted bc i was great at multitasking and then everything else just got ignored bc i was doing so so great.. until one day i wasn't. but by that point it was just "oh you former gifted kids are always so lazy" ...like bruh it's the burnout but also it's the not being used to anything anymore bc this shit is hella overdiagnosed medically but hardly gets diagnosed in women until "real problems" hit in adulthood..... sorry for the vent/rant yall im just... constantly struggling in some way or another with my mental health but all of this online schooling stuff has just been so fucking hard to get anything done. and im about to start my summer term so im like.. fuckin losin it. sorry for this and thank you or have a great day and all of that good stuff. take care yall. <3 my fidget bitch could not get here sooner

[sillyguyhotline]

You’re short, you are the former gifted kid and you check your posts a lot to see if anyone liked them even though you posted it like 5 seconds ago

1. yep i’m like 5’2”

2. yeah i consider myself a former gifted kid even though i’m technically still in a gifted program. tbh it’s about the mindset in my opinion, the gifted kid burnout stuff starts to set in when you lose that motivation and drive that made you a gifted kid in the first place.

3. YEP!! i crave external validation to an unhealthy extent.

[thedeskside]

11 Resilience-Building Habits for Stressed Healthcare Workers

The pandemic has pushed healthcare workers to their limits. Burnout was already a serious problem in the industry, but after a year-long front row view of COVID’s devastation, burnout levels are on the rise and traumatic stress is taking a toll. And yet, healthcare workers must find a way to keep showing up and doing one of the toughest jobs around. The big question is, how?

Practicing healthy habits are the key to building up your resilience skills, say Drs. Hendel and Goulston, and with greater resiliency you can thrive despite the long-term challenges of the pandemic.

Do frequent self “check-ins” to recognize when your stress levels are rising. When you’re busy and under pressure to perform, it’s easy to go on “autopilot.” Therefore, periodically pause and do a quick self-assessment throughout the day. Consider your emotional state (Do I feel friendly and engaged, or edgy and aggressive?) as well as your physical state (Is my body calm and at ease, or is it holding onto tension?). “Take 20 or 30 seconds to scan your body and identify areas that may be holding onto tension or stress,” says Dr. Goulston. “For example, you might be carrying tension in your jaw or shoulders. When you notice an area that is tense, gently release the tension. Over time it should become easier to recognize when stress begins to take hold—and to do something about it.” Ground yourself when you start feeling overwhelmed. Grounding is a great way to reduce anxiety and arrive in the here and now. Dr. Hendel advises that you use it anytime you feel carried away by anxious thoughts or feelings, or triggered by upsetting memories and flashbacks.

Find a comfortable place to sit (or stand). If sitting, rest your hands on your legs. Feel the fabric of your clothing. Notice its color and texture.

Next, bring your awareness to your body. Stretch your neck from side to side. Relax your shoulders. Tense and relax your calves. Stomp your feet.

Look around and notice the sights, sounds, and scents around you for a few moments.

Name 15-20 things you can see. For example, the floor, a light, a desk, a sink.

As you keep looking around, remind yourself that “The flashback or emotion I felt is in the past. Right now, in this moment, I’m safe.”

Pause and take a few deep breaths. We tend to hold our breath whenever we are stressed, but this only exacerbates feelings of anxiety and panic. Instead, use “box breathing” to calm yourself and heighten your concentration. Box breathing is the technique of taking slow, deep, full breaths. Here’s a tutorial for when you’re feeling triggered. Slowly exhale your breath through your mouth. Consciously focus on clearing all the oxygen from your lungs. Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for four slow counts. Hold your breath for four more slow counts. On the next four counts, exhale again through your mouth until your lungs are empty. Hold your breath again for a final slow count of four beats. Try the 12 words exercise to process traumatic stress. This powerful tool helps you tap into your feelings when you feel “stuck” due to trauma by gently visiting key words one at a time. Paradoxically, naming a feeling that you’re having and letting yourself fully experience it actually lessens tension more than it increases it. As Drs. Goulston and Hendel say, “If you can name it, you can tame it.” You can do the 12 words exercise on your own, in therapy, or as part of a group exercise. If doing it on your own, imagine a trusted friend or loved one gently and empathetically guiding you through the exercise. If you are in a group, the moderator can lead the exercise by speaking each word to the group, or to a single person in the group. You don’t have to cover all the words at once. You can focus on just one or two words, take a break, and start on a new word later.

STEP 1: Read the following words out loud: Anxious, Afraid, Overwhelmed, Fragile, Depressed, Frustrated, Angry, Ashamed, Alone, Lonely, Exhausted, Numb. STEP 2: Pick one of these words that most captures what you’re feeling when you’re greatly stressed and then focus on it. STEP 3: Imagine feeling this feeling at its worst. STEP 4: What does this feeling make you want to impulsively do? STEP 5: Imagine saying what you want to do to a person who loves you, and picture them smiling with love and compassion and saying back to you, “I understand.” STEP 6: Imagine feeling their love taking some of the pain away. STEP 7: Imagine them asking you, “What would be a better thing to do?”

Reach for something that anchors you in the present moment. Carry a small reminder of what you love about your life and focus on it if you feel triggered and need to center yourself. It might be a photo of your kids or pet, a small rock you picked up on a scenic nature hike, or a special necklace. Think of the gratitude you feel for your life whenever you look at this token. Keep something that makes you laugh nearby. Humor is a great way to alleviate stress. Tape a clip of a funny cartoon to your work area or carry a small notebook with jokes that make you laugh every time you read them. Use calming affirmations to give you strength and peace. Written positive statements can give you a lift when you feel yourself sinking. If self-talk is not for you, imagine a supportive other saying these to you in your mind’s eye. A few examples:

I am great at my job, and my training and skills are empowering.

I feel energized and ready for anything the day has in store for me.

I accept myself as I am. I am enough.

I am safe in this moment.

Let your feelings out (when possible). At times you may find you need to step away from your duties for a few minutes and give those intense emotions some “breathing room.” Try to move to a different room so you can cry or discreetly express your feelings. Sometimes you need to release the stress that’s built up in your body, and finding a private place to let the tears fall or vent for a few minutes can lighten your stress and enable you to get back to work.

Play a mind game. “If there is no way to speak to someone else and you need comfort in the moment, imagine talking to someone who loves you,” says Dr. Goulston. “Imagine that they are listening and lovingly holding and encouraging you. As you hear them talking and walking you through it, you will feel their love and belief in you. This kind of mental pep talk can be a bridge until you are able to speak your feelings to somebody in person.” Head outdoors for a few minutes. If at all possible, try to get outside for a few minutes of fresh air during your shift. Take deep breaths, stretch your arms and legs, and take in the gifts of nature around you. And if possible, find someone else who is on a break and invite them for a 10-minute walk so the two of you can blow off steam.

Rediscover the simple pleasures around you. Traumatic stress can make the world appear and feel dangerous, with threats lurking around every corner. That’s why it is important to stay immersed in the joys of life. Focusing on simple pleasures promotes healing and helps you enjoy your life in the process. For example:

Get lost in a good book. Don’t just read a few pages before bedtime. Really allow yourself to indulge. Set aside 30 minutes after work or in the morning before starting your day to escape into a captivating story.

Take a walk. Even if it is only five minutes long, commit to taking a walk every day. Chances are, by the time those five minutes are up, you will want to keep going.

Find a creative outlet. Think gardening, playing a musical instrument, putting together a puzzle, or even coloring in an adult coloring book.

          Don’t just turn to these strategies when you feel stress or anxiety rising in your mind or body. Intentionally practice them daily—even if you are feeling calm and in control. Over time they will become second nature.

          “Resilience isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have,’ it’s a ‘must-have,’” concludes Dr. Hendel. “And it will continue serving you long after the pandemic is over.”

Diana Hendel, PharmD Dr. Diana Hendel is the coauthor of Why Cope When You Can Heal?: How Healthcare Heroes of COVID-19 Can Recover from PTSD (Harper Horizon, December 2020) and Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption and Thriving on the Other Side (HarperCollins Leadership, Spring 2021). She is an executive coach and leadership consultant, former hospital CEO, and author of Responsible: A Memoir, a riveting and deeply personal account of leading during and through the aftermath of a deadly workplace trauma. As the CEO of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital, Hendel led one of the largest acute care, trauma, and teaching hospital complexes on the West Coast. She has served in leadership roles in numerous community organizations and professional associations, including chair of the California Children’s Hospital Association, executive committee member of the Hospital Association of Southern California, vice chair of the Southern California Leadership Council, chair of the Greater Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, board member of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and leader-in-residence of the Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership at California State University Long Beach.

Mark Goulston, MD, FAPA Dr. Mark Goulston is the coauthor of Why Cope When You Can Heal?: How Healthcare Heroes of COVID-19 Can Recover from PTSD (Harper Horizon, December 2020) and Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption and Thriving on the Other Side (HarperCollins Leadership, Spring 2021). He is a board-certified psychiatrist, fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, former assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA NPI, and a former FBI and police hostage negotiation trainer. He is the creator of Theory Y Executive Coaching—which he provides to CEOs, presidents, founders, and entrepreneurs—and is a TEDx and international keynote speaker.

This is a guest post.

[bluewatsons]

Alex Mayyasi, The Hypocrisy of "Judge Judy", Priceonomics (January 14, 2016)

“I think the message I deliver is a good one. And that message is: you’re supposed to be a responsible citizen.” -- Judge Judith Sheindlin, a.k.a. Judge Judy

Judge Judy is known for her quick rulings, pithy sayings, and forceful personality, and it is hard to think of a judgment as quick, a saying as pithy, or a performance as forceful as the case she settled in only 26 seconds.

“I had to replace all my IDs,” said Ginny Paradeza, as she explained that the two men in the courtroom had stolen her purse. “I had gift cards in there, an earpiece, and a calculator.”

As she spoke, one of the defendants interrupted. “There was no earpiece in there ma'am,” he told Judge Judy.

The courtroom laughed. By calling Ms. Paradeza a liar, the man had revealed that he’d stolen her purse. Judge Judy smiled, pointed to the defendants, and called them “Dumb and dumber.”

“Judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $500,” Judge Judy concluded. “Goodbye.”

The case is one of thousands that Judy Sheindlin has settled as the host of Judge Judy, a reality television show that first aired in 1996. The cases are minor but real, drawn from the country’s small claims courts.

The 20-year run of Judge Judy has been one of the most remarkable in television history. It has had the highest ratings of any daytime show for the last 5 years, and it consistently attracted more viewers than Oprah. Sheindlin makes $47 million a year and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Sheindlin has enjoyed her commercial success; she also says she uses her show to teach lessons. “If I could define it in one word,” she has said of her message, “it’s responsibility. People really want their fellow man to accept responsibility for themselves and their actions.”

Sheindlin reiterates the theme of responsibility and accountability over and over. In interviews, she lambasts a welfare state that tells people “not to worry, if you can’t take care of yourself, we’ll take care of you.” On her show, she gives a tongue lashing to defendants who make excuses and reprimands victims who exercise poor judgment.

Accountability is her thing, and like most of what you see on television, it’s mostly an illusion. Because as even Judy Sheindlin has acknowledged, after she admonishes guilty defendants and orders them to pay for what they’ve done, the producers write a check to pay for those damages and give everyone in the case an appearance fee.

In other words, the producers help the defendants avoid accountability.

This does not mean Judge Judy has no substance. In fact, few people have earned the right to moralize as much as Judy Sheindlin.

Before she played a judge on TV, Sheindlin was the supervising judge of the Manhattan Family Court. In one of her hardest cases, she had to decide whether a 14-year-old mother was guilty of murder after her baby was found dead in a toilet. This is the context where she first preached responsibility.

But once she moved to television, Judy Sheindlin started chastising rulebreakers even as her show absolved them of responsibility.

The Incredible Career of Judith Sheindlin

Judy Sheindlin’s early life reveals few hints that she would become the queen of daytime television.

She grew up middle class in Brooklyn. Sheindlin has described her time in high school as an “unremarkable tenure,” her mother as a “a meat-and-potatoes kind of gal," and the idea of being on television as “a fantasy.” She expected to be a “working girl,” so after graduating from American University in Washington D.C., she enrolled in its law school.

But Judith Sheindlin had the personality of Judge Judy all along. She loved to argue so much that her father believed she would become a politician. Sheindlin has also said that she picked up comedic timing from her father, a dentist who told jokes to reassure his patients. For that reason, when Sheindlin first watched the People’s Court, the first courtroom television show, she believed she could do it better than its sober, analytical judges.

Sheindlin, though, was not in Hollywood. She married while in law school. To meet social expectations, she transferred to a law school in New York, where her husband worked, and prioritized cooking and cleaning over her studies. Despite saying that a woman at the college she attended, the New York Law School, was about “as welcome as a skunk at a lawn party,” she graduated and took a job as a corporate lawyer. But after two unsatisfying years, she quit and became a stay-at-home mother.

It wasn’t a good fit for the future workaholic. To stay stimulated and “do something other than watch daytime TV and take care of kids,” she took graduate courses and attended law seminars at night. At one, a former colleague told her about an opening as a prosecutor in family court. She took the job.

Sheindlin found the work rewarding. “I’m a law and order girl,” Sheindlin has said of her time prosecuting and later sentencing mothers who burned their children with lighters and youths who beat cab drivers. “I found my mission.” Ten years later, in 1982, New York City mayor Ed Koch appointed her as a judge. In 1986, she became a supervising judge, in charge of Manhattan’s family court.

It was an important, $90,000 a year job that involved managing nine judges and hundreds of attorneys. Yet family court is distinctly unglamorous. Cases can be gruesome, but since they focus on minors, they exist at the bottom of the judicial hierarchy. Family courts receive fewer resources, and its judges and attorneys handle too many cases. Burnout is common.

Many fans of Judge Judy now wonder whether Sheindlin bullies, insults, and mocks people in her courtroom for the sake of TV ratings. But it’s not an act. She has always bullied, insulted, and mocked the people in her courtroom.

Judy Sheindlin’s rise to fame began with a long profile written about her in the LA Times. In the article, reporter Josh Gelin introduced the world to the character now beloved by millions of fans of Judge Judy.

Gelin described Sheindlin as a “tart, tough talking judge” who told him, “I can't stand stupid, and I can't stand slow.” Judge Sheindlin took over the questioning of witnesses when lawyers proceeded too slowly and bullied lawyers so much that one report noted that “attorneys beg her to simply listen to them.”

The only pauses in Sheindlin’s courtroom came when she told jokes, sounding “more like a stand-up comic than a judge.”

The butt of those jokes were often litigants who Sheindlin felt wasted her time or made excuses—a phenomenon captured by Gelin in this memorable exchange:

"Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!" she yells at a teen-ager who claims he began peddling drugs after a death in his family. "Nobody goes out and sells crack because Grandma died! Get a better story!"

Sheindlin has said that she always worried the press would describe her as a monster during her tenure as a judge. But Gelin portrayed Sheindlin as a hero who “who won't give up the fight to help America.”

“Sheindlin's highly personal crusade to bring order out of chaos,” Gelin wrote, “has assumed folkloric proportions in America's largest juvenile justice system.”

Former mayor Ed Koch, who made Judith Sheindlin a judge, later starred in The People's Court. Warner Bros. via NY Daily News

In this light, he views Sheindlin’s impatience as a necessity—given her daily caseload of 40 to 100 trials each day—and a determination to keep the courts moving. He also sees Sheindlin’s disinterest in mitigating circumstances and her defendants’ lives not as a lack of compassion, but as a necessary corrective.

At the time, in 1993, the “Tough on Crime” movement was in full swing. Crime rates were high, and political rhetoric blamed America’s soft court system and unraveling social mores. Reagan had signed a bill that introduced mandatory minimums in 1986, and in 1994, Bill Clinton approved legislation that built more prisons and toughened criminal sentences.

The LA Times article fit Sheindlin into this tough on crime narrative—in laudatory terms.

“The crisis of collapsing families is a national problem,” Gelin wrote. “The hubcap-stealing kid of the '50s is today's gun-toting gang member.” Gelin portrayed family court’s “soft” and “compassionate” approach as out of touch with the rough new reality of a crime epidemic, and Judy Sheindlin’s tough approach and focus on personal responsibility as the answer.

The LA Times article attracted more attention, including that of 60 Minutes reporters. They approached Sheindlin, and in 1993, they aired a story that portrayed her in similarly heroic terms.

After she watched the 60 Minutes interview, Sheindlin celebrated by meeting up with friends and buying a tuna fish sandwich. She was fifty at the time, and she has said that she had planned a modest retirement in Florida.

But the entertainment world saw big potential in the tour-de-force judge.

A book agent told Sheindlin that she had to share her message of personal responsibility, and the result was Sheindlin’s bestselling book Don’t Pee on my Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining.

Then a producer with experience in court television told Sheindlin he wanted to cast her in a show. The result was Judge Judy.

The Making of Court TV

By the second season, the success of Judge Judy had inspired competition. Producers re-launched The People’s Court and piloted new series like Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, and Divorce Court. None has matched Judy, but court TV is now an established format.

Court TV is not fake, but the setup is not completely honest. The courtroom is actually a set, with hired extras who are paid to banter so the bailiff can say “Come to order!” when Judge Judy walks in. As for Sheindlin, she has not been a judge for decades. During Judge Judy, she serves as an arbiter at a binding arbitration—a private alternative to a court case.

But Sheindlin operates in her fake courtroom just like she did in a real one. She arrives by 8 a.m. knowing the basics of each case, and she hears each in turn. It’s the crews’ job to capture the drama and edit it into an episode. There is no script; there are no re-takes to get a line right; and they film a week’s worth of episodes in a single work day.

The only major differences now are that Sheindlin takes a private jet to work (she flies to L.A. most weeks for tapings) and plays hands of gin rummy between cases to keep her energy up.

Since Judge Judy is an arbitration, it can’t cover criminal cases. People can only agree to arbitration for civil cases (matters of money and property), and Judy’s cases come from small claims court, where people can sue for a maximum of $5,000.

That’s where the producers come in. Along with teams of researchers, they scour America’s small claims courts with the critical eye of a reality television producer.

For an inside look at this process, we turned to Sharon Houston, who worked as producer for court TV for more than 10 years and has chronicled the experience. This is how she has described the process of scouring America’s courts for promising cases:

If you're from Detroit, Houston, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Gary, or Atlanta, I'm calling you no matter what the case is about. Why? Because that's where crazy lives.

I'm also going to call you if you're suing for pain and suffering, mental distress, mental agony, nightmares, and my favorite, loss of enjoyment of life. I also love it when Plaintiff wants to sue Defendant for being "triflin'." That's good stuff!

Her job, Houston says, is to exploit stereotypes. She’s looking for black women suing each other over a hair weave. Booking a mother-daughter pornstar team was a triumph. Scorned women are great. Before the show, producers pump the litigants up like they are boxers in the ring, so they’ll be ready to say horrible stuff about each other.

"It's what the audience wants," Houston says. "... it's weird, it's so weird."

To Sheindlin’s credit, Houston says that Judge Judy aims to be “above brand.” (Houston did not work on Judge Judy, but court TV is a small world.) Judy’s producers want drama and some crazy, but not stereotypes or people who will fight all episode. The Judge Judy producers prep litigants by helping them articulate their case.

Why do people go on court TV? “Everyone wants to be on TV,” Houston says. In her estimation, 60% of the people who appear on shows like Judge Judy go for the free trip to L.A. and the 15 minutes of fame.

The other 40% of the time, Houston says, people do it for the money. Plaintiffs who know they will win want the quick settlement rather than a long court case. Defendants who think they’ll lose want the show to pay the damages they owe. And in either case, the show pays each person an appearance fee of around $150 to $500 and pays for their flight, hotel and meals.

This aspect of court TV—that when Judy Sheindlin and other judges order defendants to pay up, it’s the producers who actually pay—is an open secret. The media has reported it, citing litigants who appeared on Judge Judy. Sheindlin herself has confirmed it in interviews, and we confirmed it with both Sharon Houston and Sheindlin’s publicist.

You can see an example of this in the below recruiting letter, which was sent by producers to a potential litigant:

Source: Fox4

These promises don’t fit with Judy Sheindlin’s narrative about teaching responsibility. But they do draw people to L.A. for taping sessions of Judge Judy.

It’s no secret that the majority of the people who appear on Judge Judy and court TV shows are poor. People with money don’t sue each other over $5,000, and if they feud in public, they don’t do it on daytime television. But the biggest insight from talking with Houston is fully appreciating the litigants’ poverty.

“I have to ask them if they have teeth,” Houston has said. Most of the litigants, she explains, don’t have a full set of teeth, so the show buys them a pair for their appearance—or paints their teeth if they’re rotten and discolored from drug use. They might also take them to a hairdresser or barber, and they provide clothes that look nice but not too nice.

“If you saw what America actually looks like, you’d be horrified,” Houston says. “You wouldn’t turn on the TV.”

Judging Judy

The most common criticisms of Judge Judy—from both viewers and law scholars—condemn the way she berates and moralizes the poor and unfortunate.

And there is something disconcerting about a well off judge mocking poor defendants for being unprepared or struggling to present their case. “These people have been in a cycle of poverty,” Houston tells us. “It’s just something we don’t understand.”

This isn’t only a matter of sympathy. Eldar Shafir, a Princeton psychologist, has studied how poverty prevents people from solving puzzles similar to an IQ test. "Financial constraints capture a lot of your attention," he has said. "Then there's less bandwidth left to solve problems. Your cognitive ability starts to slow down, just like a computer."

Sheindlin has held a fire and brimstone view of justice since her family court days. ("I want first-time offenders to think of their appearance in my courtroom as the second-worst experience of their lives,” she told the LA Times in 1993, “circumcision being the first.") Whether you consider her manner and judgments as commonsensical or lacking compassion gets at a fundamental debate about our criminal justice system: should it punish or rehabilitate?

For her part, Judy Sheindlin has criticized judges who speak in fancy, legal language and said that she uses jokes and plain language so that people will understand her judgments and lessons. (“Liar, liar, pants on fire," she has said, "That people understand.”) In interviews, she explains her lack of interest in mitigating circumstances (or “sob stories,” as she would put it) this way:

“While I recognize that some of the people I prosecuted in family court didn’t have the same kind of advantages I did… I found it almost disrespectful to say, well what do you expect? They come from this type of home. Because 95% of the other children brought up in the same environment did not go out and hurt people.”

What about Judge Judy’s message of responsibility, which seems undermined by her producers paying for any damages that Sheindlin instructs a defendant to pay?

When we asked Sheindlin’s publicist, he responded, “If Judge Sheindlin dismisses a claim, the parties are bound by that decision, and if she orders the transfer of property, the parties are bound to do that transfer. Therefore, there are often very real consequences to her judgments. That's in addition to some real lessons for the audience.”

This is partly true. When Sheindlin dismisses a case, the case is over by the terms of the arbitration agreement both parties sign. When a court TV judge orders a defendant to return a car or some other piece of property, though, it rarely happens.

“In my experience,” Houston says, “whenever a judge says exchange property, we can’t enforce that. We just pay the judgment.” In some cases, the staff tells the defendants to bring the property to court so they can make the exchange. In most cases, Houston says, producers pay the cost of the property and the defendant keeps the item in question. No accountability there.

That doesn’t mean Judge Judy doesn’t offer resolution or lessons. When people are mad enough to undergo the time and expense of small claims court over a few hundred dollars, the case is usually, like any fight, about emotions as much as money. People can feel vindicated when Sheindlin finds in their favor—or appreciate someone helping them resolve a conflict. Houston has received letters from plaintiffs and defendants, she says, that read “Thank you, I learned something” or “Thank you for making this right.”

Judy Sheindlin is many things. She is the highest paid woman in television, and someone who started her career by throwing off the expectations of motherhood to work her ass off in the unglamorous world of family court. She berates defendants, and she has personally investigated a case when she believed a defendant was incorrectly stripped of her parental rights. Her comments about welfare have led minority groups to criticize her, and she has gone out of her way to ensure that a group of young, white men who beat up a young, black man would face jail time.

When it comes to judging Judge Judy, we can only do it with a nuance she would hate: It’s hard to judge.