<prompt> Human: I know it was pure irresponsibility on my part. Im scared shitless and bordering on panic. Please help me formulate a strategy to get out of this. Please tell me straight up what kind of life Im gonna be living or tell me if I will have to drop my life just to survive this. edit: I also have some amount in my 401k from my previous job. Should I liquidate them to pay off my card?  <response>: I think this is important because it sounds like you are having a lot of emotional stress due to the situation which is understandable. 1. Take deep breath.2. Realize you are not going to die and that your life is not ruined. Also realize it might suck for a while until you undo what youve done. 3. Understand this is a math problem. 4. If you havent already, stop using any further debt related cards. 5. Find a way to generate income in order to start reversing your financial situation. You are going to need some leverage when talking to CC companies. If you have no incomepotential why would they cut any deal with you? tl;dr get some sort of job and start making progress back to 0. 