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Self-harm is a maladaptive coping mechanism, but that doesn't mean it is "disgusting," and naturally there are many reasons behind it. The three hypotheses as to the cause of self-injury are: trauma (in childhood, as in physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse or neglect), alexithymia (the inability to identify or express one's emotions), and dissociation (using self-harm to either numb said feelings or to, when numb, "feel real"). Obviously, everyone is different, and this is not an excuse; self-injury, as I said, is a maladaptive coping mechanism.
But there are people who know no other way of coping with their high levels of negative affect, and as such, resort to self-injury. This does not make them any more disgusting than alcoholics, drug users, those with eating disorders, or those who use other self-destructive ways to cope with the feelings that they themselves can neither understand nor communicate with others about.
As someone who has self-harmed, I feel that labeling it as "disgusting" is very deletrious to one's self-esteem, and this sort of stigma associated with self-injury perpetuates the guilt that, most likely, those that engage in such behavior already feel.
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