While you may not recognize Michael Madsen’s name, you would certainly recognize his face. He has stared in a number of major movies and TV shows and series over the years including the very graphic Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill and Donnie Brasco. His character is usually a tough guy with a good heart, but he always seems to be a bit on the edge, regardless of the character he is playing.

How much of his life, like many other actors’ lives, may be a close approximation to reality rather than a work of fiction? Here is a professional actor with over 150 movies that seems to have a self-destruct mentality that is now impacting his personal and professional life. In the last few years he has had several brushes with the law including a child endangerment charge and prior DWI in 2012 where his blood alcohol level was reported to be twice the legal limit.

His last arrest in Van Nuys, California has finally prompted a judge to order him into a residential alcohol addiction program for a minimum of 30 days. While this temporarily resolves the issue of his drunk driving, can a court ordered rehab program be effective for Michael Madsen or any other star?

Can anyone, celebrity or average person, be ordered to become clean and sober? Research shows that drug and alcohol recovery programs that are forced on a person can, in fact, be highly successful. Then tend to have about the same rate of sobriety one year later than those that are entered into voluntarily. Often the combination of the arrest, hitting bottom, loss of public support and even the inability to deny the problem actually helps the celebrity addict to see that he or she has to make a change to maintain celebrity status without becoming a sad story.

However, the biggest hurdle for most celebrities, even with a successful court-ordered rehab stint, is returning to the real word and making lifestyle changes to support sobriety. Celebrities tend to spend time with other celebrities and when drugs and alcohol are the norm the recovering celebrity is fighting an uphill battle. The good news is that celebrity’s in rehab can make life altering decisions and choose to live clean and sober lives, it just take effort, work and the ability to recognize a dangerous situation and make a change.

Sherry Gaba LCSW, Psychotherapist, Life, Love & Recovery Coach is featured Celebrity Rehab on  VH1. Sherry is the author of “The Law of Sobriety” which uses the law of  attraction to  recover from any addiction. Please download your free E book “Filling The Empty  Heart” and your “Are You a Love Addict Quiz?” at www.sherrygaba.com Contact Sherry for webinars, teleseminars,  coaching packages and speaking engagements. Listen to Sherry on “A Moment of Change with  Sherry Gaba” on CBS Radio Take Sherry’s quiz for a free eBook Filling the  Empty Heart: 5 Keys to Transforming Love Addiction.