Philip Seymour Hoffman had been sober for 23 years before a recent indulgence in prescription medication led to harder drugs. Before long, he was snorting heroin.

He credits family and friends for getting him to rehab a couple weeks ago.  

According to TMZ, the 45-year-old Hoffman had been clean and sober for 23 years before last year. 

He fell off the wagon slowly, started with prescription medications before finally graduating to the harder stuff. 

Recently, he had been snorting heroin. 

Hoffman told TMZ the heroin use only lasted a week or so before he realized he needed some help and the drug use had gotten out of control. As a former addict, he knew the warning signs.  

He checked into a rehab center on the East Coast and spent 10 days getting clean. He checked out of the facility last Friday, and he's already back at work on God's Pocket due out next year. 

The Academy Award winner for best actor in Capote and Oscar nominee for best supporting actor in Paul Thomas Anderson's critical hit and commercial flop, the oeuvre-expanding The Master, had been sober for quite some time. 

He's due to appear in the next installment of the Hunger Games trilogy based off the Suzzane Collins books. He plays Plutarch Heavensbee in the next film with another Academy Award winner, Jennifer Lawrence, as the titular Katniss Evergreen. 

Hoffman told TMZ he credits "a great group of friends and family" for his decision to check himself into rehab to get the drug problem under control before it spiraled beyond his own capacity to recognize what was wrong. 

Hoffman's girlfriend of many years, costume designer Mimi O'Donnell, was probably one of those family members to which Hoffman spoke.

The two met while Hoffman was directing In Arabia We'd All Be Kings and they have three children together: Cooper (10), Tallulah (6) and Willa (4). 

For now, Hoffman has cleaned himself up, at least according to TMZ, and he's back filming either God's Pocket or a film that's been unannounced, in Europe right now.