repression...

"Repression - dissociating emotions from awareness and relegating them to the unconscious realm - disorganizes and confuses our physiological defences so that in some people these defences go awry, becoming the destroyers of health rather than its protectors."

"The fundamental problem is not the external stress but an environmentally conditioned helplessness that permits neither of the normal responses of fight or flight. The resulting internal stress becomes repressed and therefore invisible. Eventually, having unmet needs or having to meet the needs of others is no longer experienced as stressful. It feels normal. One is disarmed."

"Hans Selye discovered that the biology of stress predominantly affected three types of tissues or organs in the body: in the hormonal system, visible changes occurred in the adrenals; in the immune system, stress affected the spleen, the thymus and the lymph glands; and the intestinal lining of the digestive system... pathological effects are generated by central nervous system pathways and by hormones."

"For those habituated to high levels of internal stress since early childhood, it is the absence of stress that creates unease, evoking boredom and a sense of meaningless. People may become addicted to their own stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol."

(Gabor Mate MD)