One of the more intriguing storylines during this fourth season of 'Mad Men' (Sundays at 10PM ET on AMC) involves how poorly Don Draper is handling his new station in life as a divorcee, single dad, and partner in a fast-growing advertising firm. You can see all the pressures of his life getting to him in different ways. But where it's coming out the most is in his drinking.

At some point during the show's first three seasons you had to know that Don's at-work and social drinking would go from being a quaint artifact of another era to a real problem. You saw evidence of the hard-driving ad world taking its toll on Duck Phillips, who we see has fallen off the wagon again, Fred Rumsen, and even Roger Sterling. Joan knows what boozing it up has done to Roger, because she asks him during the Clios afterparty whether he's "crossed over from lubricated to morose."

So seeing Don stumble home from work, walk in to the office with massive hangovers, and drunkenly bed down his secretary showed us that Don's having a hard time. But last night, Don went on an epic bender, which puts him in a whole new league of alcoholism.

Think about what Don accomplished between the Clios on Friday and his finally coming back into consciousness on Sunday morning:

-- He sold Life Cereal on a slogan he pinched from the uncreative flea that Roger sent to Don for an interview,
-- He sent Peggy and Stan Rizzo into a hotel room to figure out the Vick's account, leading to a nudity showdown between the two,
-- He bedded down a fellow Clio winner who sung her national anthem-like jingle as she gave him oral pleasures,
-- He hooked up with a blonde waitress named Doris, actually using his real name (Dick) in the process,
-- He blew off picking up his kids, giving Betty the upper-hand for now in their epic post-divorce struggle.

The horror on Don's face as he realized that the woman he woke up next to was different than the one he vaguely recalled going to bed with, paired up with the horror that he doesn't remember Saturday at all, should have given him pause. Even how he sheepishly sent Doris away like he was an inexperienced teenager should have embarrassed him into thinking it's time to ease up the drinky-drink a bit. But all he ended up doing was pouring himself more whisky and lying down until a pissed-off Peggy knocked on his door.

Don is a guy who seems to be finding himself some ways and losing himself in others. He wants to be the Don Draper of old, the family man who lives for adventure. That's the reason why he continues to challenge himself with the elusive and whip-smart Faye Miller. He also wants to be Dick Whitman from time to time, an identity he fears will disappear when Anna succumbs to cancer. When he loses himself, he hits the bottle. Hard.

What he's not realizing is that the parts of his life when he feels lost are starting to affect the parts where he knows who he is. The Life pitch meeting is evidence of that, as is him missing his visit with the kids, even though that's more out of a sense of responsibility than a desire to actually see his kids.

Don knows firsthand how hard drinking can affect a person's decision-making process -- as we saw this week, he wouldn't be where he is if he didn't take advantage of Roger's drinking problem ten years earlier -- but it's also very tough to pull yourself out of the downward spiral once you've entered into it. If this isn't Don's rock bottom moment -- and I doubt it is -- I'm curious to see what Matt Weiner and his crew are dreaming up. Because we know rock bottom is coming, eventually, and it's going to be something as mundane as Freddy Rumsen peeing his pants.