Jon Hamm: 'I hope I'm a better person after rehab'

Former Mad Men star Jon Hamm underwent a rehab stint in 2015 to "get better at living".

The actor, who played boozy 1960s ad man Don Draper in the beloved TV drama, spent 30 days in treatment for alcohol addiction, and admits the counseling helped him get his life and career back on track after a crazy few years.

"(It helped me) recalibrate, re-evaluate, just sort of re-establish where you are," Hamm told The New York Times in a new interview. "You’re coming off of this Tilt-a-Whirl (fairground ride) that’s going 9,000 miles an hour, and so many things have come unfixed. If you think about navigation, you're trying to stare at a fixed point. When you navigate to something that’s whirling, it’s difficult. It’s all a learning experience.

"It’s all about growing older and getting better at living. And I hope I did."

The Baby Driver star took his rehab very seriously and continued weekly treatment sessions with a therapist long after the stint was over.

"It (rehab) has all these connotations, but it's just an extended period of talking about yourself," he told British menswear retailer Mr Porter's The Journal magazine last year (16). "People go for all sorts of reasons, not all of which are chemically related. But there's something to be said for pulling yourself out of the grind for a period of time and concentrating on re-calibrating the system. And it works. It's great."

And he has always been a big fan of therapy after attending sessions following the death of his father when he was 20: "I find it very helpful," he explained. "After I'd lost my dad, I had this horrible paralyzing inertia - and no one in my family was capable of dealing with it, so what do you do? Go and see a professional.

"I preach it from the mountaintops. I know it's a luxury and it's not something everyone can afford. But if you can, do it. It's like a mental gym."