everyone feeling the need to get absolutely fucking wrecked as often as possible is probably a sign of some sort of material condition that they’re self medicating for…

That's what I figured. The reason I went to Leeds is to visit a friend who studies there. She was really shocked when she realized just how much the people there binge drink. Her first shock came when she first walked the streets Sunday morning, and she just saw vomit all over the place. She thinks it's because of the way of life, people are very isolated and stressed constantly. The only time they have enough time for themselves is during the weekends, and the best thing they can do is to just get wrecked and use Sunday to recover, so that they can go back to work on Monday.

I had fun while I was there but from what I saw I wouldn't really want to live or study there. Everyone wants to study abroad if they can because there's this idea that everything here sucks (which is partially true) and everything abroad is better, and foreign universities are more "serious" and better. And yeah, alright, in many ways they are, but studying here is dope, it's completely free, you got lots of time, not a lot of assignments, not as much anxiety and competition, and even introverts and shy people can socialize easily. What I hear from my friend (as well as some other people who study in England) sounds very alienating and unpleasant so I can see why everyone ends up getting hammered on booze and drugs during the weekend. I imagine work there is similar.

Who'd have thought, the reason is capitalism...