Disgust is a sign of trauma, which can lead to anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Here’s how to process it.
As trauma therapists, we recognize Irene’s downcast head as emerging shame, and we normalize simultaneously experiencing many emotions that may be opposite in nature, like disgust and love. Each emotion needs to be listened to, honored, and processed separately. We tell our patients: “Feelings just are! They do not mean you’re a bad person. It’s so natural to feel disgust in response to the traumas you’ve been through.
”—a technique that helps patients release core emotions like disgust by accessing the impulse and enacting the emotion’s “adaptive action.”In this case, Irene saw herself shoving her mother hard and telling her how hurt she was by her insults and threats.