Speaker: 00:07
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to YNA Mental Health. My name is Cena Belucch. I am the host for YNA Mental Health. Today's episode, we're going to be talking about an emotion that is an avoidant emotion, something that makes you wrinkle your nose, or something that can make you sick to your stomach. Today we're talking about disgust. Not just you, not just being grossed out. I mean disgust as a real emotion. A deep one, a physical one, a social one, a painful one. Because disgust is a powerful emotion, and that matters because some emotions bring us closer to ourselves. Disgust usually creates distance, distance from things, distance from people, distance from experiences, and sometimes distance from ourselves. And for me, this topic is a little bit more personal. Because one of the first times I really understood disgust is when I realized other people can attach it to you, to your food, to your home, to your culture, to the smell of where you are coming from. I remember what it felt like when kids reacted to my culture, like it was disgusting. Not just different, not just unfamiliar, but disgusting. And when you're a kid, it gets under your skin fast. But as a kid, you don't have the language for it yet. You don't say, Oh, this is how disgusting becomes social. You feel embarrassed, you feel ashamed, you feel exposed, and you feel different. Sometimes you start wondering what is wrong with you. And that is why I wanted to do this episode. Because disgust is not just about the gross things, it's about shame, it's about belonging, it's about the body and its identity. And it is about what happens when an emotion that may have started as protection gets turned onto people. So what is disgust? Let's start there. Disgust is one of the most physical emotions we have. You don't just think it, you feel it. You feel it in your stomach, you feel it in your throat, in your skin, and in your face. It is quick, it is visceral, and it usually shows up before logic does. It's not just I don't like that, it's more like I don't want that near me, I don't want that touching me, and I definitely don't want that inside of me. That is why researchers have taken disgust so seriously. A lot of research sees disgust as protection, it helps us avoid contamination and disease before we even think it through. So disgust is not just random, it has a job, it warns us, it protects us, it pushes away. But the problem is disgust does not stay in its lane. So, what do we find disgusting? At first, that answer must seem so obvious, right? Like it's something that we could just pull up in our mind and immediately say, No, that's disgusting. We find things disgusting that are rotten, spoiled, leaking, or even decaying. Bad food, waste, bodily fluids, bad smells, and things that just feel dirty. But disgust gets more complicated really fast because humans do not feel disgust toward spoiled things, we also feel disgust towards things that are unfamiliar, taboo, or socially loaded, and that's where the bigger question begins. What actually makes disgusting things disgusting? Because when you really sit with that question, you can go deep fast. At first, the answer may seem simple, like rotten food is disgusting because it's spoiled, waste is disgusting because it feels dirty, bad smells are disturbing because they make us recoil, but that still just doesn't explain it, it doesn't dive deep into what the emotion really is. Because disgust is not just about disliking something, it's not just that's unpleasant. Disgust feels stronger than that, it feels like rejection, contamination, something in us saying, keep that away from me, and don't let it get close, don't let it become a part of you, and that is why the question matters so much. Because if disgust were only about things that were dirty or gross, it would be a lot simpler, right? But disgust often shows up around things that blur boundaries, things that remind us that our body is vulnerable, things that remind us that life is also messy, things like decay, exposure, leakage, or loss of control, and that is part of why disgust can feel so intense. It's not just about ugliness, it's not about the body, it's about it becoming reality. It's open, it's fragile, and it is our true definition of being human. One of the reasons philosophers like Colin McGinn takes disgust so seriously. His basic idea is that disgust confronts us with the unsettling side of biological life. That we are perishable just like animals. We will also decay. And disgust is our closest link to death. But let's be honest, it does make sense because disgust often shows up when somebody forces us to face what we truly try to ignore. That the body is not real, that life is not clean, that being human is not polished or sealed off. So maybe disgusting things are disgusting, not just because they're dirty, but because they remind us of what we are, and sometimes that reminder is harder to bear and to understand because as humans we want to understand everything, we want to be one with what we're feeling, and that's why disgust can be so painful. So, why do people find different things disgusting? This is where disgust becomes really interesting, but the feeling of disgust is powerful, but the triggers are flexible. What disgusts one person may be completely normal to another. Now, one's culture's comfort food, one culture's smell is another person's absolutely not. Or yuck you gross. One family normal is another family's ug. And if that's true, then disgust is not just biological, it is learned too. That's part of why Daniel Kelly gets into his famous book, Yuck. Disgust has biological roots, but it also becomes social and moral, and that's what matters because it brings me back to my childhood. When kids reacted to the smell of my culture as disgusting, that reaction it wasn't easy to understand or to be one with. It was learned, it was conditioned, and it was reflected what felt unfamiliar to them. But when you're young, you don't know that, you don't understand the motion. Instead, you internalize it. You think maybe you are the problem. Maybe your lunch is the problem, maybe your home is the problem, maybe your family is the problem, and that's how disgust becomes shame. And if you're looking to understand shame, we are doing another episode on shame in this season. Please check it out. It's a great episode. Back to it. When disgust gets attached to people, this is the hardest part of the emotion because disgust can start with an object, but it rarely stays there. It spreads, it attaches itself to meaning, it attaches itself to identity. And once disgust is attached to a person, it becomes deeply painful. Because now it's not just that smells bad. Now it becomes something about you is bad, something about you is too much, something about you should be hidden. And that kind of disgust can really shape someone, it can make you smaller, it can make you hyper-aware of yourself, hyper-aware of what you're doing, how you're reacting, and who you are. When you become too hyper-aware, you start to bring it into everything you do. What is that smell in that room? How do I smell? What are people thinking of me? And the research touches this as well. The same system that people avoid contamination can also spill into social judgment and avoidance. So when disgust gets attached to culture, class, sexuality, disability, illness, or just difference, it stops being about protection, which is what we humans have evolved from. Disgust becomes exclusion. It becomes this emotion that is so damaging because disgust does not just reject, it humiliates. Now, with disgust and shame together, they have a really close relationship, maybe closer than people really understand, because disgust says that should not be here, that should not be touched, that should not be seen. And when this energy gets internalized, it becomes self-disgust, which is so painful. And self-disgust is so heavy. It's not just low self-esteem, it's not just insecurity, it's the feeling of recoiling from yourself, feeling gross in your own body, feeling gross in your own skin, feeling like parts of you are contaminated, embarrassing, or unworthy. And I think a lot of people know that feeling. And even if you never use the words self-disgust, then you have felt it in body shame, in sexual shame, in trauma, in eating struggles, and in identity shame. So, how does disgust and mental health work together? This is where the topic gets important. Because disgust does not only move outward, it can turn inward. And when it does, it can affect our mental health in a serious way that's damaging. Some people are not just anxious, some people feel contaminated, some people are not just ashamed, some people feel tainted, some people are not just overwhelmed, some people feel like something about them is dirty, ruined, or deeply wrong. And those experiences, those feelings are real. Research has linked disgust strongly to contamination-based OCD. There is also research on mental contamination in a feeling of being dirty or polluted, even when nothing physical is there. So when someone says, I know nothing touched me, but I still feel dirty. That experience in itself is real, it has language, it has weight, and it deserves to be taken seriously because this is so important because disgust can isolate us, it can make us feel emotional, sad when all we want is comfort. As humans, we don't want to feel scared, we want to feel reassured that who we are and what we're doing is important. But let's be honest, disgust wants distance, it wants space, it wants separation, it wants to push away, and when that gets turned inward, that person is no longer just disconnected from the world, they become disconnected from themselves. So now we can think about one of the most important things, which is art, but why disgusting art can still be so powerful? This is one of the strangest and most interesting parts about disgust. Because if disgust is about recoil, why does disgust art and disgusting movies and disgusting things that we create still matter? Why do people watch horror movies? Why do they stare at disturbing paintings? Why do grotesque images sometimes feel so powerful instead of just ew, yuck, or gross? This is where Carolyn Korsmeyer comes in. Her work asks why disgusting things in art can still have meaning and power. Because sometimes what repels us also reveals something real: that we are breakable, that we are age, we are decay, and being human is messy. So even here in the world of art, disgust is not shallow, it carries emotional weight and internal pain. So I think why disgust matters so much is not just about our reaction to gross things, it is a body emotion, a survival emotion, a shame emotion, a social emotion, and sometimes a mental health emotion. It can protect us and it can also mislead us, it can also warn us about danger, but it can also get attached to difference and identity. And that is why I think disgust deserves more attention. Because once you understand disgust, you understand more about shame, more about stigma, and more about belonging, and more about the body. So if I had to leave you with one thought, it would be this disgust turns our stomach. Disgust can hurt us in so many different ways if we're not careful. If we don't understand the basics of this emotion, it can affect a lot of things in your life. Disgust can make an impact in the friends we choose, the life we live, our political views, our family, our culture, who we are. Disgust began as something that protected us, but it has evolved into something so different now. It is a teaching lesson because we can't allow disgust to rule our life. Things are disgusting. You're going to face parts in life where you are going to have to face disgust head on. It's not just an emotion, but disgust is a mental-bearing pain that we have to be able to recognize and identify within ourselves because it's what creates distance. If we don't understand that our identity can be shaped so differently and quickly, just because something disgusts us doesn't mean that it isn't something that's just different. Between those two things, we can change everything within ourselves. We can protect ourselves, but at the same time, if you can understand the emotion and the self-awareness that needs to come with the emotion, then you are one step ahead of identifying and becoming self-aware with who you are. Now, I know it can be scary. I know it's hard to identify emotions that you've never felt before or that you have felt and not been able to identify. I know it's hard, but you listening to this podcast is a step forward into understanding disgust and understanding yourself. Don't allow disgust to create shame about your body, create shame about who you are, create shame about the people you surround yourself, or even create shame towards the culture that you are from. It's something that we can use to protect us, and it's something that we can use to help us. Now, I really hope that you understand that you are going to get through whatever mental health struggle you're dealing with and how you're dealing with it. I know you're not alone, but I have to continue to remind you please, please, please, please remember you are not alone. You're gonna get through this. I believe in you. I'll catch you on the next episode.
unknown: 20:23
Bye.
