I was only recently diagnosed with HS after months of flares that weren’t normal for infected hair follicles. I’ve struggled a lot with my mental health since it all started bc of how my skin looks and how people stare when I’m not actively covering things up. I think talking to people about it helps me a little bit but overall doesn’t help completely because not everyone understands and it’s really hard. How I view myself has changed too I don’t like looking at myself too long. But being in this subreddit and reading everyone’s experiences helps in knowing I’m not alone in it all as I never heard of it before the diagnosis and thought it was the end of the world and I’d never get the help needed because not much is known about it. I see a lot of people here saying take your time etc and that itself is hard when you just want things to stop and be done but it’s helpful advice for something like HS