You may be experiencing pain because you have injured a part of your body following an accident. However, it might be that you are not sure why you are getting painful symptoms and the picture is not so clear. The first task in the pain recovery process is to establish the nature and cause of your pain.   Pain can be either caused by a structural injury with usually a sudden onset (‘acute’ pain) or rooted in the pain system itself (‘chronic’ pain).  Establishing this difference is key as different types of pain require different treatment approaches. This identification process, the diagnosis, is an exploration – firstly, through a detailed case-history and then a physical assessment.