To those who worked with former middle school teacher Jessica Dueñas, she appeared to be thriving.
In 2019, Dueñas received the Kentucky Teacher of the Year award while working as a special education teacher and team leader at Oldham County Middle School in La Grange, Ky.
At the time, Dueñas announced that she planned to use her platform as Teacher of the Year to “go to bat for struggling students.” But soon afterward, Dueñas realized that she could no longer take a lead role in supporting her struggling students, as her own life was spiraling out of control.
Privately, Dueñas was enduring a vicious, daily cycle of alcohol abuse that lasted for many of her 13 years as a teacher.
“As soon as dismissal happened and those school buses left the parking lot, I would grab my stuff, get in my car, and then I would go find a different liquor store to go to every single day, because I was scared that even the liquor store owners would figure out that I had a problem,” Dueñas said.
Once at home, Dueñas said she would drink until she passed out, then wake in the middle of the night to create lesson plans, grade assignments, and get ready for the next day of teaching.
“I was in that cycle for years,” she said.
A year after being honored with the Kentucky Teacher of the Year award, Dueñas stepped away from a career she had dreamed about since she was in kindergarten. She was 35.
“I 100 percent envisioned myself retiring from a public school,” said Dueñas who in 2021 founded Bottomless to Sober, which provides support for people recovering from alcohol abuse.
Dueñas’ story may seem extreme. But countless teachers put their students, and their work, before their own health while enduring high levels of professional stress—a leading risk factor for alcohol abuse. In fact, educators rank among the top 10 professions most likely to abuse alcohol, according to data collected between 2008 and 2012 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with an estimated 5 percent of educators surveyed reporting heavy alcohol use within the previous month.
Further, new warnings from health officials indicate that even modest alcohol consumption poses health risks. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory on Jan. 3 drawing a direct link between alcohol consumption and the increased risk for at least seven types of cancer. While the advisory did not impose specific limits on alcohol consumption, several health experts have weighed in, suggesting that a few drinks per week could increase health risks.
This news might hit teachers especially hard, whether they routinely celebrate happy hour with colleagues or have a drink or two at home after a stressful workday.
Teachers, stress, and a society centered around alcohol
Anna Shchetinina, a social epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who studies alcohol abuse and its effects on women of reproductive age, is not surprised by the statistics that show educators are among the professionals most likely to suffer from alcohol abuse.
“Teachers have really high levels of education and soft skills and emotional intellects and all those great qualities that make them healers,” Shchetinina said. “But it [teaching] also requires a lot on their end, and there is this expectation that they will show up for others, potentially taking time away from self-care.”
Teachers may not even realize the full extent of how much stress they’re under. “I did not realize how hard teaching was,” Dueñas said. “I knew it was difficult because obviously I was in it, but teaching was the only job that I ever had.”
It took stepping away from the classroom for her to recognize the stress of teaching.
“Every minute of every day is structured. You barely have a planning period. Now, with teacher shortages, your planning periods are often dedicated to helping cover the building,” she said. “Your lunch is maybe 25 minutes, not even an hour, which is standard in other places. And so there is this constant, constant stress of not having any flexibility. And what you’re being taught is being more and more dictated from external sources. Not only that, but then your students and their performance is tied sometimes to your perceived worth as a teacher.”
In Dueñas’ experience, teachers often turn to alcohol to celebrate both the end of a rough week in the classroom or a good day of teaching. “There’s so much celebration and so much community building that revolves around alcohol and bars for educators,” she said.
Of course, centering events around alcohol consumption is not unique to educators.
“It’s interesting that alcohol is such a socially accepted substance, but it’s also one of the most harmful things that exist,” said Harvard’s Shchetinina.
It’s also a common “go-to” for people seeking relief from job-related stress, she notes.
“Substance use is a really common coping mechanism, unfortunately. It’s very easily accessible. And it’s easier to have a glass of wine after a long day of work than go for a five-mile run,” Shchetinina said.
Women are drinking more, and they’re at higher risk for associated health problems
Alcohol consumption is on the rise, especially for women, who make up 77 percent of the K-12 public teacher workforce.
Shchetinina led a 2024 national study of the effects of alcohol use disorder on women of reproductive age (18-49). She found that women with alcohol use disorder—defined by the National Institutes of Health as an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences—are susceptible to several negative health effects, including but not limited to liver and cardiovascular disease, breast and other cancers, sexual violence, and mental health problems.
The study, which included data from thousands of participants, concluded that about 13 percent of women age 18 to 49 who are not pregnant or parenting suffer from alcohol use disorder.
Between 2005 to 2012, binge drinking in the United States rose 17 percent, according to national self-reported data. Among women, the increase was far steeper—more than seven times the rate among men. A more recent study found that binge drinking among women ages 30–44 without children rose from 21 percent in 2006 to 42 percent in 2018.
Binge drinking equals four or more drinks for women, or five-plus drinks for men, on a single occasion at least once in the past month.
There’s so much celebration and so much community building that revolves around alcohol and bars for educators.
The pandemic made things worse. Dueñas reported that, for her, teaching remotely during the turmoil and isolation of the pandemic exacerbated her struggles with recovery.
“I just realized it was not sustainable for me to teach the way that I wanted to teach, and also recover from addiction,” she said.
Researchers also observed an uptick of alcohol use disorder during the pandemic. “I think COVID was just the catalyst for this, because we were in a very unique situation with a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety and isolation and access to substances,” Shchetinina said.
Suffering in silence
Shchetinina notes that many people with alcohol use disorder fail to get treatment. In her study, only about 5 percent of women who self-reported as having alcohol use disorder sought professional treatment, she said.
The stigma of acknowledging a problem with alcohol can prevent people from seeking help.
“I think that the stigma is absolutely still there,” said Dueñas. “But silence keeps us sick.”
She adds that teachers shouldn’t be ashamed to reach out for help and that, now, with the proliferation of online support communities, it’s easier to maintain privacy.
As for Dueñas, she pushed away for years the “intuitive voice” that told her she needed help. Being such a successful teacher made it easier for her to bury it.
“I was showing up, and I was doing all these great things for my students, which so many teachers do on a daily basis,” she said. “But the reality is that, at the end of the day, we are all replaceable, and it’s so important for teachers to get the help they need.”
