An exploration of the experiences of self-disgust in people with epilepsy

•The present study is the first to explore the experiences of self-disgust in adults with epilepsy.•Individuals with epilepsy and significant levels of self-disgust report how they internalized the disgust they felt in response to their own physical symptoms.•Participants also felt disgust reactions from others and these disgust reactions also became internalized and added to participants’ feelings of self-disgust.•Participants described avoidance (of situations and people) as a means of managing self-disgust but this strategy was acknowledged as not always adaptive.