It's usually not a pretty process, but generally if you talk to whoever you have debt with, if you work out a plan to pay something in, like a few hundred bucks a month, they won't try and collect on their debts forcibly. I worked in a different branch of the debt industry briefly - primarily credit card debt, mostly small business owners racking up debt on their platinum cards or whatever - so take that with a grain of salt. I know there are different repayment plans specifically for student loans - look into that and maybe talk with someone before calling in.

You really do want to take care of it ASAP - I don't know if they've capitalized your interest or not yet, but if they haven't, do everything possible to avoid that happening! Student loan interest from my understanding only accrues on the initial borrowed sum, as opposed to compounding interest, but if you become delinquent they can capitalize your interest! When they capitalize your interest, any unpaid interest you owed beforehand becomes a part of that base sum, and you have to start paying interest on that interest, which can potentially be horrendous.

https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans