Tense, distress continually returning - you can hear it in the voice (5)
I believe the answer is:
twang
'can hear it in the voice' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'tense distress continually returning' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'distress continually' becomes 'gnaw' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'returning' says the letters should be written backwards.
'gnaw' back-to-front is 'wang'.
't'+'wang'='TWANG'
'you' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for twang that I've seen before include "Sound of a tense wire or bowstring being plucked" , "Sound of plucked string (or certain dialects)" , "Noise made by a plucked string" , "Pluck (a string)" , "Sound of elastic being plucked" .)