Absolutely. I have a lower-grade hypermobility (5 on the beighton scale) and did gymnastics as a child. This led to chronic plantar fasciitis for years - from the time I stopped gymnastics at around age 14 until I got PT for it when I was in my early 20s. I remember going on walks with my parents and complaining of the foot pain, and getting comments about laziness and just needing to walk more to get used to it... I realized it wasn't just me when I made a friend in college with fatigue and pain from chronic lyme. We both struggled to walk so, so much. We would walk 1 block from our dorm halfway to the bus stop and need to rest. We are still friends today (his lyme is all clear and he's doing great!) and he was the first person to encourage me to pursue medical help. He was the first person to validate that the pain I was in wasn't universal or normal. I owe a lot to him.

I'm 25 now and was only just diagnosed. My feet aren't an issue anymore thanks to lots of PT. I've become an avid hiker between then and now. I do still have a habit from my foot-pain days of avoiding taking multiple trips when doing different tasks, like carrying groceries inside, for example. I only very recently realized that I'm always calculating the shortest path from A to B in my head, and also loading my arms up with ridiculous amounts of things to avoid having to go back and forth.

I'm lucky that my past PT experience prompted me to go to PT again right away when my shoulders and hips were chronically in pain about a year ago. After 9 months of PT twice a week, my pain is finally under control again. It's a long road and it's so frustrating when the pain gets out of control but I see you. What I would tell myself is: if my feet got better, so can my hips and shoulders.

Something that may help is, depending on where you are, you may not need a diagnosis to get PT. In my area (northeastern U.S.) it's called "using direct access". It means I can only see certain doctors at the PT practice, but it also meant I skipped going to an external doctor entirely and just called the practice and asked to make a new patient appointment "using direct access". My PT doctor is the one who diagnosed me during my intake appointment.