This guided worksheet is designed to help you put the tools from our Healing Space anxiety episode into action. Anxiety with HS can feel overwhelming — especially when flares, pain, appointments, or social situations trigger your body’s fight / flight / freeze / flop response before you even realize what’s happening.

This worksheet helps you:

• Identify your personal anxiety triggers

• Recognize your stress response patterns (fight, flight, freeze, or flop)

• Practice calming techniques like 4-4-4 breathing, sensory “snaps,” grounding, and cold resets

• Create your own go-to plan for interrupting anxiety before it spirals

It’s not about “fixing” yourself — it’s about understanding your nervous system and giving it tools to feel safe again.

Print it, keep it in your journal, or save it to your phone for flare days or anxious moments.
You’re not powerless — you just need a roadmap. This is it

Depression can make everything feel heavy — especially when you’re also living with HS. This worksheet is designed to help you gently activate your mind and body when motivation feels out of reach.

Using simple, science-backed strategies, it guides you to:

• Identify small activities that can spark momentum (even on low-energy days)

• Reframe negative thoughts into compassionate truths

• Create a personalized mood-boosting playlist

• Name people you can reach out to when you need support

This isn’t about “snapping out of it.” It’s about building small lifelines — moments of relief, connection, and kindness toward yourself.

Keep this worksheet nearby for tough days. Fill it out when you have the energy, so it’s ready when you don’t.

You’re not alone. And even one tiny action is progress. 💜

To the Long-Time HS Warrior — A Reflection for Those Who Have Carried This for Years
Companion to the Healing Space episode “To the Long-Time HS Warrior.”

This reflective worksheet is designed for those who have been living with Hidradenitis Suppurativa for many years—often without answers, support, or validation. It gently guides long-time HS warriors through a series of prompts that honor their lived experience, acknowledge the weight they’ve carried, and create space for processing the emotional, physical, and psychological impacts of chronic illness over time.

Companion to the Healing Space episode “Grieving Your Diagnosis”

Grieving an HS diagnosis is real, valid, and deeply human. This worksheet helps you explore what you’re mourning—your old routines, your sense of “normal,” your body, or the future you imagined—while gently guiding you through the emotional stages that often follow a chronic illness diagnosis.

Through simple checkboxes, journaling prompts, and reflection exercises, you’ll identify how grief is showing up in your emotions, body, and daily life. You’ll also choose small, realistic steps for support and write a compassionate message to yourself as you navigate this season.

This worksheet isn’t about fixing your feelings—it’s about naming them, understanding them, and giving yourself permission to heal at your own pace.

Living with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) often comes with heavy, unspoken emotions — especially shame, self-blame, and the feeling that your body has somehow failed you. This worksheet is designed to gently bring those thoughts into the light, where they can be examined with honesty and compassion instead of judgment.

Through guided prompts and reframing exercises, this reflection tool helps you explore common beliefs many people with HS carry, such as blaming hygiene, weight, food choices, effort, or even seeing HS as a “punishment.” It offers space to separate myths from reality, challenge harsh self-talk, and begin rewriting the stories you’ve been told — or told yourself — about your body and your worth.

This worksheet is not about fixing you.
It’s about reminding you that you are not broken, not dirty, not lazy, and not to blame.

Use this worksheet at your own pace, alongside the Healing Space podcast episode, or whenever you need a quiet moment to reconnect with self-compassion and release the weight of blame you were never meant to carry.

This resource is for emotional reflection and support only and is not a substitute for professional mental health or medical care.

The start of a new year often comes with pressure to “start over,” set big goals, or become a completely different version of yourself. For people living with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), that pressure can feel especially heavy — because HS doesn’t reset when the calendar does.

This reflection worksheet invites a gentler approach.

Through guided prompts, this tool helps you look back on what made the past year genuinely hard, while also recognizing what you carried, survived, and accomplished anyway. It explores comparison, envy, and grief — especially the moments when seeing others’ highlights made your own reality feel smaller — and offers space to reframe those thoughts with honesty and compassion.

You’ll be guided to set realistic, flexible goals that honor your body, your energy, and the season of life you’re in right now — not the version of yourself you think you “should” be. The worksheet also encourages you to name hope for the year ahead in ways that feel grounding and possible, even with HS along for the ride.

This is not about becoming a “new you.”
It’s about being kinder to the you that already exists.

Use this worksheet alongside the Healing Space podcast episode, at the start of a new year, or anytime you need permission to move forward without abandoning yourself.

This resource is for emotional reflection and support only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care.

Living with a chronic condition like hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) can blur the line between who you are and what you’re able to handle on any given day. This worksheet is designed to gently separate those two ideas — capability and capacity — so self-worth doesn’t get tangled up in energy levels, pain, or limitations.

Through guided reflection, this tool helps you name your strengths and core capabilities — the parts of you that remain true no matter what your body is doing — while also honestly assessing your current capacity without judgment. You’ll be invited to explore how energy, pain, brain fog, and life stressors affect what’s possible right now, and how self-criticism often shows up when those realities are ignored.

The worksheet includes prompts to:

• Recognize the difference between being capable and having limited capacity

• Reframe harsh self-talk with more accurate, compassionate language

• Reflect on changes between your past self and current self without shame

• Plan days and goals in ways that work with your capacity, not against it

• Identify small, capacity-friendly choices that support rest, boundaries, and sustainability

This is not about lowering expectations or giving up.
It’s about honoring reality so you can care for yourself without constant self-attack.

Use this worksheet alongside the Healing Space podcast episode, on low-capacity days, or anytime you need permission to be human in a body that requires more from you.

This resource is for emotional reflection and support only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care.

“Bro, This Is Why I Flake Sometimes | HS Explained for Guys”

Locker-room humor meets real talk. This video breaks down HS for male friends using casual language, focusing on camaraderie over pity. Perfect for guys who hate “serious chats.”

HS & Relationships: How to Support Me Without Fixing Me”

For partners who default to “solutions.” This video teaches emotional support over problem-solving, emphasizing teamwork in managing flares, intimacy, and low-spoon days.

Love, Flares, and HS: A Partner’s Guide to ‘Just Being There’”

Romance isn’t dead—it’s adaptive. This video guides partners through HS’s emotional and physical toll, focusing on small gestures that scream “I’m here.”

Talking to Teens About HS: Keep It Real, Keep It Simple”

Teens need honesty without overwhelm.This video offers a relaxed explanation to your teenager, addressing their curiosity while reassuring them it’s okay to ask questions.

“What Your Doctor Needs to Know About Your HS (But You Struggle to Say)”

Struggling to advocate during appointments? This video bridges the gap between patient and provider, highlighting key HS challenges (pain, flares, mental health) to kickstart better care.

“HS Family Secrets: How to Explain Your Pain to Relatives”

Tired of awkward questions at family gatherings? Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) can feel like an invisible burden—especially when relatives don’t understand why you’re canceling plans or “acting distant.” This video helps you set boundaries and educate your family. 

“Sis, Let’s Talk About My HS—I’m Done Hiding”

For the friend who’s your ride-or-die. This heartfelt video balances vulnerability with strength, inviting deeper support without awkwardness. Includes tips for practical help (e.g., comfy outfit hangs).

“HS Family Secrets: How to Explain Your Pain to Relatives”

Tired of awkward questions at family gatherings? Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) can feel like an invisible burden—especially when relatives don’t understand why you’re canceling plans or “acting distant.” This video helps you set boundaries and educate your family. 

“HS Explained at Work: How to Talk to Colleagues Without Oversharing”

Navigating HS in professional settings can feel daunting. This video equips you with clear, concise language to explain Hidradenitis Suppurativa to coworkers while maintaining boundaries. Perfect for fostering empathy without divulging personal details.

“HS for Kids: ‘Why Does Mom/Dad Have Boo-Boos?’”

Simplified HS for young minds. Explaining your boo-boos to your little ones.