Hope for Lindsay Lohan? Look at Robert Downey, Jr.

Robert Downey, Jr., was once a Hollywood outcast.

He was a child actor who made the rare transition to critically acclaimed movie star.

He was in and out several drug rehab centers, failed two court-mandated drug tests and as a result, spent four months in Los Angeles County Jail and almost a year in State Prison.

He also released an album of his own music to a lukewarm reception.

Sound familiar? Change the pronoun, and it could easily be Lindsay Lohan. Instead, it’s part of the resume of Oscar-nominated actor Robert Downey, Jr.

“Lindsay Lohan and Robert Downey, Jr. are both incredibly talented people,” psychiatrist Dr. Charles Sophy, author of Side by Side, told FOX411.com. “But they both have an addiction, they have a disease. And for fans, it can be difficult to watch someone who can’t seem to get a solid foundation to move forward, get sober and healthy, and make use of their talents.”

Being surrounded by sycophants in Hollywood can fuel addictions for stars.

“Denial is really thick and heavy in Hollywood,” explained Sophy, who treated patients on VH1’s "Sober House" with Dr. Drew. “For celebrities, it’s really easy to surround yourself with people who tell you, ‘No, you don’t have a problem.’ ‘No, you’re OK.’ There’s a lot of people who will help continue that denial process for celebrities, where in the everyday world, that doesn’t happen. The larger the denial, the longer it takes to break through to the core of the issue and the treatment.”

Many fans of Robert Downey, Jr. had given up on him by the time he fell asleep, Goldilocks-style, in a neighbor’s bed while under the influence of a controlled substance in 1996. The following seven years for Robert Downey, Jr. were a series of arrests, jail, rehab, relapse, probation and prison.

But something finally clicked and Robert Downey Jr. got sober. On a visit to the Oprah Winfrey Show in November of 2004, he explained his moment of clarity: "I finally said, 'You know what? I don't think I can continue doing this.' And I reached out for help, and I ran with it… You can reach out for help in kind of a half-assed way, and you'll get it, and you won't take advantage of it. It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems… what's hard is to decide to actually do it."

In recent years, Robert Downey, Jr.’s sobriety has rewarded him with an enviable career, including starring roles in "Iron Man," "Tropic Thunder" and "Sherlock Holmes."

“He’s an amazing actor,” Lohan said of Downey Jr. “Look at people like that who have gone through s**t and had to work that much harder to get to where they are now.”

Robert Downey, Jr. cemented his comeback and recovery in the comic book-inspired "Iron Man" series, and Lohan has also been considered for a super hero role.

"Wonder Woman would be cool,” she mused once in an interview. “I'm trying to find roles right now that are different to anything I've done to show my abilities, to show that I have some sort of stretch in me. Because most of the things that I've done so far are aimed at younger girls and are light-hearted."

But first, Lindsay needs to clean up her act. She may be on her way, now that she has finally acknowledged that she has drug problem.

On September 17, she tweeted, “Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn't go away over night. I am working hard to overcome it and am taking positive steps forward every day. I am testing every single day and doing what I must do to prevent any mishaps in the future. This was certainly a setback for me but I am taking responsibility for my actions and I'm prepared to face the consequences.”

Sophy sees Lindsay’s tweets as a sign that she’s finally breaking the pattern of denial: “I think it really humbled her to do it—she came clean, she opened up, she told people that she tripped and fell and made a mistake.”

So, is there hope for Lindsay Lohan to eventually turn her life around?

“I definitely think that anybody’s who has got any kind of drug addiction—there’s always hope,” said Sophy. “It doesn’t mean that they’re always going to step up and take that treatment and embrace it. Sometimes it takes five or six times—Robert Downey, Jr. had to hit the bottom before he could wake up. So, yes—there’s always hope.”