Title: Killer loans — college debt triggers depression and suicide | Salon.com
Headings: Killer loans — college debt triggers depression and suicide
Killer loans — college debt triggers depression and suicide
All debts are burdensome. Why is it that student loans, in particular, give people so much emotional distress?
By Victoria Wang
Why student loans are especially toxic
Victoria Wang

Content: In 2017, a financial advising company called Student Loan Hero did a survey of over 1,000 student borrowers. More than 70 percent reported suffering from headaches, insomnia, and other physical symptoms of anxiety, which sometimes lead to self-imposed social isolation. Advertisement: “I avoid doing things with friends and family,” one respondent said, “because I don’t want them to know how broke I am.” “Student loan–induced stress is threatening to take over the lives of borrowers,” the survey concludes. Student loans are pulling down the US economy — this is no longer news. Americans now spend substantially more than students in other developed countries for a college education, at an average of $30,000 per student annually. Borrowing has almost doubled over the past decade. By the end of 2018, the US had more than 44.7 million student borrowers, across all demographics and age groups, who collectively have amassed $1.56 trillion in debt, according to the US Federal Reserve. While the macroeconomic crisis of student loans has become a heated topic in the political arena, little attention is paid to the real-life crises faced by debtors themselves.