First, I'm not excusing anything. An explanation and an excuse are two very different things. I did speak about this issue and my offense 5yrs ago with one psychologist. She actually brought it up and told me that many ppl with my diagnoses have issues with erratic behaviors such as shoplifting, so I told her what I'd done 5yrs ago and how it still made no sense to me why I did it. No, I did not take this as a free pass to do it again. When I walked into this store two days ago I went with the intention of buying a sweater, a present for my daughter. And somehow, I still don't quite understand why, this ended up happening. And it wasn't even the sweater I originally went in for.
Regardless of why or how or whatever my mental health situation, I know I still did it and I will have to make it right and pay for my crime. And regardless of deputydog above, or anyone else who says to stop referring to this as a mistake, that is EXACTLY what I will refer to it as, a mistake. I plan on bringing it up to my current psychiatrist what happened, my history with it, and seek any additional help I need. But NONE of us are free from sin. All of us at some time in our lives, have made a wrong choice, a bad decision, done something we severely regret, in other words...a MISTAKE. Some mistakes are worse than others that's the only difference.
A pattern I tend to see in the replies on a lot of these posts and threads is a lot of rudeness and just outright MEAN responses. How about showing a little human decency and just kindly responding if one actually has a helpful answer or advice they can give?? A little kindness goes a long way, and it's completely free it costs nothing.
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And also yes, I have an appt to speak with an attorney in a couple days. I'm hoping he can give me some kind of insight, but most that I've spoken to so far, other than one very kind attorney, seems to not want to be helpful at all in any way until you tell them you're able to afford their fee. Even though they promote that they offer 'free consultation!' They're really not interested in consulting until they hear from you that you've got money. So I'm going into my consult with low expectations and telling myself I'll have to wait for my court appointed attorney to get any real answers.
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Well I appreciate your honest recommendation. I do plan on filling my time and doing whatever it takes, and making whatever changes in my life necessary to make sure I never do anything like this again. Thank you.

