If you were up to your eyeballs in debt and felt severely trapped, would you enlist the assistance of a Credit Counsellor to negotiate better terms for you?
never have credit cards, don't lend money and you wont have bad debt. save your money and do everything in cash and barter. should never let it get out of hand in the first place.
Definitely enlist the help of someone to help you. Most places are understanding if you approach them with a plan to pay off your debt - as long as you haven't left it too long before you do something about it! However, things are pretty tight for everyone at the moment - even the "big boys" who are struggling to pay their staff and meet their responsibilities. Better to try something than to ignore it and hope it'll go away. I can assure you it won't!