Hello all,

I have been having problems with depression and anxiety that has been exacerbated by my having trouble paying private loans I have through Sallie Mae. I am a full-time student who is graduating this May and these loans are from another school that I attended about 10 years ago. My loans from that school totaled about $150,000. Today they are about $250,000 because of interest and my having trouble paying them. I used up my in-school forbearance and they went into repayment in December with a monthly payment of $2400. I could only pay them $100 each month and they have been calling me up to 9 times a day (even sometimes on the weekends) for the last four months. Today I called them up to again try to get a new payment plan through them and was finally successful. It was REALLY hard for me to call them up and talk to them, but I was so proud of myself that I finally did it this morning. My payments have been cut in half (which is still too much, but I have to make do somehow) and it was really my only choice or go into default which would result i me being sued (they have tried to do this to me before). I am really in a no win situation, but this is the first time that I have felt like I had a handle over these loans in 9 years.

The problem is my boyfriend feels like I made a huge mistake and it really infuriates me that he cannot see how hard this was for me and that it is a good idea that I am taking responsibility for my loans. This isn't the first time I had done something that was hard for me to do, but I did it and expected him to be proud of me and, instead, he said I did it wrong. The reason I am writing about it here is because his dog died this morning and I even though he made me mad I didn't have the heart to take the conversation further. We have been together for 3 years and this is probably the third time I have felt that he disregarded something I did that made me feel good because it was hard for me. So I wouldn't say this is an everyday thing otherwise there is no way I would be with him.

I just need to get this out and I didn't know where else to turn. I'm so mad! My mom didn't have a good reaction either so I couldn't talk to her about how mad I was either. This is a tough situation, but I cannot run the risk of being sued or having more problems with my credit. I got my interests rates down to 1% and cut my payments in half, how is this a bad idea? Should I just wait to get sued and have such bad credit that I can't even get a $100 loan? I still have to come up with a monthly payment that is insane, but the weight on my shoulders is so much lighter. But of course I feel terrible because my boyfriend's dog just died and he is in a lot of pain and I'm mad at him. I shouldn't be mad at someone who has lost a pet. I know how it feels and it is one of the worst pains in the world.

Should I bring this up with him sometime in the future or should I just chalk it up to him being in a fragile emotional state?