Personal and professional woes continue to mount during the coming weeks for GENERAL HOSPITAL's A.J. Quartermaine, and he will turn again to the one thing that he thinks can help solve his problems: booze. Longtime viewers know that A.J. has been sober for the past three years after a difficult bout with alcoholism that landed him in a recovery program. A.J. began drinking heavily after he was left at the altar by his gold-digging fianc�e Nikki.

When Sean Kanan took over the role of A.J. from Gerald Hopkins, Alan and Monica were checking their sober son out of a clinic. Since that time, the character's alcoholism has rarely been noted, except for a few references by A.J. about wanting a drink. "We've never really seen A.J. going to or coming from any (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings," realizes Kanan, "so in my mind, it's always been a constant temptation and a battle for him to avoid drinking. It's a source of vulnerability and weakness for A.J. that he's had to deal with on a daily basis."

By nature, A.J. has been the underdog of the Quartermaine family, never able to get ahead in business or romance no matter how hard he's tried. He's failed at his attempts to win the hearts of Julia, Lois, Lily, Brenda, and most recently, Keesha. "A.J. saw Keesha first and she went with his brother," says Kanan. "That really hurt him." But it's Keesha who's become his friend...and she may be the one to help A.J. save himself. She's worked with him at The Charles Street Foundation, and she's seen how he's evolved as a person. "He's confided in her and told her how he feels. He told Keesha how nice it would be to duck into the bar across the street where no one knows him and give a high-ball of vodka his undivided attention. He tells her how good it feels to be drunk and how it makes all the pain go away." And when he saw the ailing Stone dealing with all his medication, A.J. commented that he would rather drink a bottle of vodka and drive off a bridge than go through what his friend is going through.

So it's really no surprise that A.J.'s latest setback practically hand-delivered him to the Quartermaine wetbar. When Carla's prostitution ring was discovered and linked to A.J. and The Charles Street Foundation, A.J. resigned out of shame: once again he feels that he's failed his family. And himself. "It was his opportunity to take the ball and run with it and shine," says the actor. "A.J. worked very hard. He's been very diligent. This comes from a guy who now wants to do well on an inter-personal level with people in the Charles Street area. He's actually grown to give a damn. But now he's been humiliated. I think he genuinely set out to do a good thing...and he was screwed over by Katherine and Damian."

The fact that Carla - like perhaps the other women in his life - betrayed him, isn't easy for A.J. to accept as well. "He liked this girl because she gave him the time of day, and he thought maybe she would be the one. But it's one more time that a woman has really burned him. I think that he may be suicidal, or at least despondent, and he throws himself into the bottle."

With the Quartermaines and the residents of Charles Street up in arms about A.J.'s latest fiasco, will he just hang it up as he tumbles off the wagon? "A.J. constantly tried to engender the respect and admiration of his family members by being a competent businessman," points out Kanan, "and Ned or someone else undermined him every step of the way. He desperately wants to be loved by some woman...and he can't find that. What he's learned is that if you swim with sharks, you better swim faster or else you're going to sink."