Hawkin Miller, who lives in Newport Beach, California, was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age 5 in 2002. He shares his advice for people with Duchenne who struggle to stay on track with their treatment plans.

This applies to anyone, regardless of whether you’re having a rare disease or not. My motivational speech for those that are struggling with a treatment plan is to really understand, first: “Why am I doing this at the beginning? How is this beneficial for my health?”

“Maybe this isn’t beneficial for my health. Maybe I need to take another look at putting all the time into this, and maybe there’s something else that I could be doing better.”

And I think also the understanding is that, yes, it’s a lot, and yes, it can be hard to remember everything, and it gets in the way of your social life and stuff, but this ultimately is for your best health.

And I like to look at it as delayed gratification. It’s not the only reason why I’m doing well with Duchenne, but I think a huge reason is I’m doing all this stuff because I know it’s in my best interest, and I know it’s going to help me feel better and perform better, and just be a better friend and better person in general.

When I apply and do all these treatment plans, sometimes you have to do the hard things in order to get the results you want to get. And that’s kind of the way life is. I didn’t design it that way, but ultimately, sometimes, the hardest things have the biggest payoffs. And that’s my motivational speech to anyone who’s struggling with treatment compliance.