LLOHANDINA091307_001_ns.jpgDina visiting Lindsay in rehab in 2007

Dina Lohan says tonight on 20/20: "I believe [that Lindsay doesn't drink anymore], and I think it's gonna be a lifelong struggle with addiction. But I think she's gonna be okay."

Stage mom to the 24-year-old troubled actress, Dina Lohan has been criticized for her parenting skills -- and not just by her ex, Michael. The piece seems to be as much an investigation into Lindsay as it is into the mother behind her -- the mother who has taken Linds and her underage daughter Ali to nightclubs, who reportedly home schools Ali, and who is in a constant legal battle with Michael Lohan over child support and other issues.

Still, Dina trains the focus on her daughter, saying: "She's a young girl struggling. You know, she's not perfect ... She's learning as she goes, but she's learning under a microscope, so I can't even imagine how that is."

As for how Dina handled Lindsay's addiction, she tells 20/20 reporter Chris Cuomo: "I knew early on, I just didn't tell anyone about it. It was a personal situation." She says the trouble began almost immediately after her daughter moved to LA by herself, at 18.

"I saw it visually, what was happening. You know, I'm around my children. I was around Lindsay a lot, and I saw what was happening. I grabbed the bull by the horns and tried to get her help immediately."

Lindsay checked into rehab at 2007 but was busted for DUI a few months later. Her life seems to have been in a downward spiral every since. Dina says she never saw it coming: "I never thought it would be this -- the media would be so crazy. I really never thought it would get to this level. It's been really hard on my family -- harder than anything."

But Dina says Lindsay's over it now and putting her life back together: "I really think she was at a maturation level that she now understands what she needs to get from it. And she grasps that."