Speaking of anxiety about blood donations, I went to donate blood a year or so ago because I thought it was an ethical thing to do, but at the time it was illegal to give blood in my country if you've ever had gay sex (now only if you've had gay sex in the past 6 months) so I freaked out and left. I don't have an STI or anything, but I felt mad shameful.
I tried to donate plasma knowing they were probably going to have the no men who have sex with men (MSM) rule. I am on PrEP which is an HIV-prevention med, and despite that, they wouldn't accept me because I'm MSM. I used that opportunity to sort of be a voice to the person who was running the tests... like I think it's super important to take a stand in ways like that. I wasn't blaming that guy, but we discussed how fucked up the system is, basically. He was a straight white male, of course! I learned it was FDA who enforces the law, and Talecris or whatever who was running the clinic has no choice to enforce it.
So sometimes I get this pimple, usually a whitehead right under my lip. It's a huge cause of anxiety because I'm sure it's super noticeable since it moves whenever my lips move. I don't really care when I get pimples in other places, but this one drives me so crazy because it's so noticeable. I usually only have one pimple at a time, so anytime I get one, that really makes it stand out more. So sometimes that means I cancel plans or avoid social events because of this goddamn stupid pimple. Like today, when I was thinking of organizing a breakfast with some extended family on my last day visiting California for probably a year. Fuck.