disassociation and stress

something i am wondering is that i noticed that sometimes i will be stressed out and not really know why and i ask myself if i have been through a lot of stressful things and thinking back i realize that i have been. but it feels very distant (like i don't feel connected to experiencing the distressful thing but just have a vague feeling it happened.) Would that still affect my levels of stress if i am not directly remembering it? Thanks.

most likely, you can't remember it because it affected your levels of stress.