Students to receive stress aid

     Is Just Saying “No” All its Cracked Up To Be? will offer students help and information to deal with stresses.

     According to presenters Linda Specks, academic advisor, and Sonja Butler, counselor, college students are often pulled in many directions.

     Class load, part-time job, friends and social life can often add up to stress and anxiety. At that point, the lure of drugs as a social or stress reliever might become strong, they said.

     The free lecture, part of College 101: Survival Workshops, will be Thursday, Oct. 25, 11 a.m.-12:20 p.m. in the Student Center Galley.

     The pair will discuss coping skills and alternatives to drugs as well as offer information and advice on handling different situations and learning to trust oneself to make decisions without drugs.

     Specks and Butler believe many factors go into a student’s decision to use drugs but students have just as many alternatives to say no to drugs.

     Topics such as fear and anxiety and college and coping skills with examples and alternatives will be covered in the lecture.

     In addition, various drugs such as cocaine, heroin and marijuana will be among those discussed in the presentation.

     The counselors also plan to provide a resource list for those in trouble.

     Information and alternatives are the key to a student’s decision to just say “No,” Specks and Butler said.