Below is a snip of an article that hammered the Midwest for its binge drinking crisis.    This work hard/play hard mentality basically stems from people who hate their jobs/lifes and can’t express their feelings about it. The first thing I noticed when I moved to the West coast from Chicago? People didn’t ask, "So, what do you do?" On the West Coast they ask what you like to do (i.e. outdoor sports-wise). But in Chicago, there’s nothing to do, but drink. Please don’t respond about all the fucking great museums. People eat, work, drink, sleep. But boy, is it great to be a bartender in Chicago.    In my opinion, when you turn 25–it’s time to stop using "party" as a verb.    Get out and experience life.   Birth, school, work, death is NOT reality. 

State ranks 3rd in U.S. for adult binge drinkingIn Illinois, nearly 25 percent of people 26 and older said they had a binge episode in the previous month.

By Kathryn MastersonRedEyePublished March 9, 2005

With drunken St. Patrick’s Day parades, beer-soaked baseball games and plenty of specials at clubs and bars, it’s no wonder that Illinois is one of the nation’s biggest party states.

Any weekend out in Chicago proves that people here love to drink, and research shows that Illinois ranks near the top of the list for biggest binge-drinking states. We’re not talking college drinking–one study shows that nearly a quarter of people 26 or older in Illinois said they’d gone on a drinking binge in the last month.

"Binge drinking is still an issue among the general population," said Katherine Cruise, a spokeswoman for Screening for Mental Health Inc., which sponsors an annual national alcohol screening day. "It’s really more of a global problem."

Nationally, binge drinking drops after age 25 but remains common among 26- to 34-year-olds, according to the 2002-2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. A third of people in that age group reported binge drinking (meaning five or more drinks on one occasion) in the previous month. About 45 percent of 21- to 25-year-olds said they were binge drinkers. After age 35, the binge drinking rate drops to 18 percent. Alcohol use, especially excessive use, is a popular area of social research. The numerous studies that come out sometimes vary in percentages, but generally agree that binge drinking is big.

In Illinois, more than 25 percent of the total population reported engaging in binge drinking in the previous month. For the college set (ages 18 to 25), the rate was nearly 50 percent. As for the postcollege crowd, almost a quarter of people 26 and older said they had a binge episode in the previous month. Illinois ranked third for binge drinking among adults (Wisconsin ranked first, Michigan second) and eighth among college students, according to a study from the CDC and Harvard University.

What do these numbers mean?

Illinois ranks high as a party state, but for postcollege professionals, how long can the party go on? And what effect does all this heavy partying have on the lives of young professionals?

"There are some people who go out every night," said Jon Landon, 27, owner of an entertainment promotions company and a regular on the Chicago social scene. "I don’t know how they do it, but they do."

Landon says he’s able to meet all of his responsibilities, work his ass off, work out every day and still go out as often as four nights a week.

He and his crew of 10 friends usually go out Tuesday night, take Wednesday off, then start their weekend Thursday.

Their usual routine is to start the night at Gibsons with a dirty martini, drinks and dinner, then head to whatever lounge or club is the hottest at the moment. People they know usually send them shots, and he doesn’t count the number of drinks he downs.

"If you work hard, you party hard," Landon said. "That’s the kind of philosophy a lot of people have."

His partying style is more restrained than when he was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In college, he said, you could miss out on the best party of the year if you skipped one night out. Some people disappear from the party scene after being a fixture at lounges and clubs for a long time, Landon said.

They either cut back on going out because of work, he said, or sometimes they leave Chicago because they can’t make it here.