Usually not. After three months, most tissues have healed or reached a stable state, and the pain is driven more by a sensitised nervous system than by ongoing damage. Hurt and harm are not the same thing. That is why carefully graded movement can feel uncomfortable at first without causing injury, and why your physiotherapist sets a level you can repeat rather than telling you to stop.

Because scans show structure, not pain. An X-ray or MRI cannot picture how sensitive your nerves have become, how your muscles are working, or how poor sleep and stress are amplifying the signal. Normal imaging is genuinely good news: it rules out the things that need surgery or medical treatment, and it points your plan towards movement, load and nervous system sensitivity instead.

No. Fibromyalgia is one specific diagnosis, made by a doctor, involving widespread pain, fatigue, unrefreshing sleep and cognitive symptoms. Chronic pain is the broader term for any pain lasting three months or more, including persistent back, neck or knee pain. Physiotherapy for fibromyalgia follows similar principles, with a gentler starting load and closer attention to pacing and sleep.

Sometimes. If your GP decides you are eligible, a chronic disease management plan can subsidise a limited number of allied health visits each calendar year, with a potential gap payment on each visit [CONFIRM: current Medicare item numbers, visit limits and OPH gap fees]. Ask your GP whether you qualify. Private health extras, DVA and NDIS funding are other common routes.

Drop back rather than stop. Reduce your exercises to the easier version you and your physiotherapist agreed on, keep walking and moving little and often, and stay on top of sleep. Most flare-ups settle within days to a couple of weeks. Note what preceded it, because triggers are often a spike in workload, a poor run of sleep or a stressful stretch rather than one movement.

Yes, and it is not imagined. Persistent pain competes for attention, disturbs sleep and raises stress hormones, which affects focus, short-term memory and mood. Many people describe feeling foggy or flat. These symptoms usually improve as sleep, activity levels and pain management improve, and your physiotherapist can loop in your GP or a psychologist when mood is a major driver.