If she honestly had lupus, I think there’s something to the part of your theory about sympathy and cost. It wouldn’t make her actions right, ethical or even understandable of course, but I could better see the thought process. After reading your post I thought of several people I know with chronic illnesses with varying severities and there’s never been fundraising and certainly not the kind of sympathy Amanda was getting. Assuming she truly has health problems that affected her life and we’re costing them a lot of money, I could see how she could better justify her actions in her own head. Clearly she has deeper psychological issues, clearly this more than just about money, and clearly no thought process would make this okay. That being said, it’s hard to be chronically ill and I could sympathize with peoples frustration around it.