This is a cautionary tale of the consequences of defaulting on education debt, based on the experiences of seven borrowers of federal and private student loans. The stories are all true, but names and inconsequential details have been changed to protect the borrowers.

Education debt is a necessary evil. Most students graduate from college with debt. For example, seven out of every eight Bachelor's degree recipients in 2007-08 who applied for federal student aid graduated with student loans. Every graduate and professional student who applied for federal student aid and graduated with a degree in business, law or medicine had to borrow to pay for their education. The bottom line is that college means debt, since student loans are unavoidable for all students except for those who come from the wealthiest of families.

If education debt is evil, then defaulting on your student loans is a one-way ticket to hell. The following borrowers have each encountered some of the more horrific consequences of defaulting on federal and private student loans, in most cases through no fault of their own. The toll is not just financial, but extends into their personal lives and affects their families too. Many experience very high levels of stress and feelings of self-loathing, even resulting in clinical depression, hospitalization and thoughts of suicide. Their debts are so severe that trying to find money to pay bills for necessary expenses is like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. When Halloween is a distant memory, these borrowers will still be living with the nightmare of their student loans.