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: Student loan borrowers are getting crushed by the mounting burden of their debts. Advertisement: Why student loans are especially toxic
All debts are burdensome. Why is it that student loans, in particular, give people so much emotional distress? Under current US debt systems, student loans are much tougher to discharge in bankruptcy. That is true both for federal and private student loans. Private student loan borrowers, in particular, have very few protections if they struggle to repay their loans. Federal loans, on the other hand, have a handful of forgiveness mechanisms, but such relief is almost inaccessible to the majority of debtors. Federal loans can be forgiven after 10 years (the standard repayment period) for those in select occupations, such as public service workers and teachers, but in practice these programs help very few applicants. Take, for example, Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), one of the most popular types of student loan forgiveness.