numb

'Cause you don't do all the things that you used to do to numb and comfort.

As a result, the faculties that would normally engage with intimate danger were cauterised and numbed and have remained so into adulthood, which accounts for the paradox of high competence and strength existing alongside severe passivity and powerlessness.

Over time, this chronic level of stress makes living a normal life extremely difficult, and so some turn to drugs and alcohol, or other means of numbing themselves, to regain some sense of control.