<prompt> Human: I attended two different universities, eventually graduating with a BS in SpeechLanguage Pathology. My mother always took care of filling out my FAFSA, and everything regarding my student loans shes a control freak. I planned to attend graduate school in the very near future, until I found all of this out:We had a huge falling out and havent spoken in months.My mother gave me the information to log in to make my student loan payments. Come to find out, Im 22k in debt when I SHOULD be around 10k in debt at the very most I attended a small university in a rural area.My boyfriends mother used to do my parents taxes. She provided me with the information that my parents took out the maximum amount possible for my loans, and used the extra money to buy furniture, curtains, etc. for their home. This would not have been a problem had my mother continued to pay off my student loans, but after the falling out we had, the loans were dumped on me and I absolutely cannot afford the current monthly payments.Long story short, Im not sure what to do. I feel that if I take legal action against my family for this that I would never speak with them again, and that isnt what I want. Should I check into loan deferment? Should I seek legal advice? Should I speak with the bank to simply lower the payments to fit my budget, then pay off my parents curtains, furniture, televisions, etc?Any input is helpful- Im at a total loss as to which direction to take.UPDATE:I ended up qualifying for a wonderful income based repayment plan. When Im on speaking terms with my family again, I plan to ask them what happened. The last thing I want is to burn the bridge between us. Thank you for all of your help guys.Assistant: Are the loans actually in your name, or are they PLUS loans in your parents name?Human: Im not even sure. I would have to look into that. That shows you how clueless I am to all of this- they always sheltered me from it. I feel like I should have known more about the process and what was going on.Assistant: Because you said this, how sure are you that your loans should only be 10,000? All because your boyfriends Mother said so? If shes disclosing information she has from preparing their taxes, shes almost certainly breaking the law, so shouldnt you be questioning her motives as well? It sounds like at least there could be some misunderstanding here. Somethings going on that tells me this is not the whole story, and you may not have all the facts. Lots of people here are making assumptions and giving you advice based on very little information. I hope you seek more information before doing anything rash. Tread carefully and good luck. Human: I estimated around 10k because each semester I spent at one university was 2k in tuition and fees per semester. I also did two semesters at OU which was supposed to be free- according to my parents. They told me that because of our Native American ID card that there was no charge at OU.Assistant: So saying 10k is conservative even. Unless my parents werent truthful to me about OU.  <response>: If it was a four year degree then even assuming the 2k is accurate and one year at OU was totally free, youd still be at 12k in tuition and fees alone 6 semesters over three years. Then theres books and living expenses and random other expenses you may not be thinking of. 22k still seems very plausible to me. 