My experience working with PTSD is that you can recover from it. I have also found there are some who do not wish to give up their PTSD. There may be several reasons for this, one being they are part of a brotherhood of others who they went through events that gave them meaning. It may be they are afraid they will forget someone from the past. It is also true that most individuals living with the disorder have little hope of recovery. Recovery from PTSD means the criteria for the disorder are no longer met. It does not mean all of the challenges of PTSD have gone away. The work in moving past PTSD is hard. After recovery from PTSD other mental health challenges may exist but not PTSD.
An individual’s response to trauma is highly complex with multiple systems of the body affected. One of the defense mechanisms that allows individuals with PTSD to successfully cope with stimuli in the environment is dissociation. Dissociation supports resilience but it may also leave one fragmented, making it difficult to respond naturally to conversations and decision making. It takes significant effort trying to manage the multiple paths of communication coming into consciousness at the same time when parts are fragmented. Those who become dissociative as a result of severe complex trauma can get past their history and give up defenses that were necessary for coping when they recognize the former threat is not longer present in their lives. This distress caused by childhood trauma is les distressing.
Military personnel may fit into the category of those who are conflicted about giving up their PTSD. They have a bond with others with similar experiences; including the loss of comrades and other life and death experiences. They may want to hold on to their past and the trauma that went with it because it gave them meaning. They typically limit their contacts and support system to others with similar experiences. It is difficult for some to move on. It is common for them to want to return to the combat arena where they left their team.
I am not a fan of group therapy for individuals who have been diagnosed with PTSD where their traumatic event is discussed. It is difficult to manage the heightened subjective units of disturbance (SUD) in a group setting when being reminded of the trauma of others. If the level of distress nears its maximum limit the member will likely be retraumatized, making recovery more challenging. If the purpose of the group therapy is to establish tools for coping and managing they symptoms a support group work may be beneficial.
I have found and studies support that there is a high correlation between PTSD and childhood developmental trauma and experiences of attachment. If a feeling of security and safety was not experienced in childhood someone is going to go through life feeling unsafe unless attachment is experienced with a partner or through a healthy motherhood experience.