The bills are piling up on Adam and Kristin Obringer, and debt collectors are calling over and over each day.

"I wake up knowing as soon as I get up the phone's going to ring," said Mrs. Obringer, 26. "But I have to go to work. Then I know my phone is going to ring at least four times while I'm at work for student loans. Then, whenever I get home, the phone will ring until 8:55 p.m."

At this point, the West View couple dread going to the mailbox or answering their phones, and are both taking prescription medicine to help cope with anxiety. They hit a new low point in June when they swallowed their pride and applied for food stamps, only to be denied because Mr. Obringer's $2,100 monthly unemployment income is too high.

It wasn't supposed to be this hard for the young couple who married in May last year. They thought they'd done the right things. They worked hard, got an education and went about their day-to-day lives doing pretty much the same things they saw friends and relatives doing.

But as time has gone by they find themselves in over their heads. The only thing remarkable about their story is that it's so common.

U.S. bankruptcy filings rose 38 percent to 381,073 from April to June 2009 compared with a year ago, as consumers and business were hit by rising unemployment and a lack of credit, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

In this uncertain economy many people are facing money problems, and they often suffer privately. It is still considered taboo to openly discuss matters of personal finance and even more frowned upon to let anyone outside the household see signs of financial distress.

The Obringers agreed to talk about their own particular hardship in order to put human faces on an otherwise hidden problem.

"I've fallen into depression and have been there for over a year now because of this, and cry almost every single day because I'm afraid," Mrs. Obringer said. "I went to school like we were taught our whole lives to do so I can be successful, and now I can't find a [better] job or pay my bills."

They met while Mrs. Obringer was a senior at Carlow University and continued dating after she graduated in 2006. Mr. Obringer did not attend college, but was making good money in information technology.

After paying about $12,000 -- using their savings and credit cards -- for the wedding and reception in May 2008, they settled into married life with $10 in the bank and thousands in debt. The weeklong honeymoon in Virginia Beach didn't seem extravagant compared with the exotic getaways in St. Lucia and Bahamas some of their friends had enjoyed.

"The way things were going, we knew we would be able to get right back up on our feet quickly," Mrs. Obringer said, adding that her husband was bringing home between $1,700 and $1,800 every two weeks.

Her student loans were a different story. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and $88,000 in private student loans, she took a job as a home health aide making between $300 to $500 every two weeks. She thought it would be temporary while she planned for the wedding.

Three years later, she's still underemployed. She has never made a full payment on her $700-a-month private student loan. Her mother makes the $160-a-month payments on a separate federal student loan.

Meanwhile, Mr. Obringer, 29, was laid off from his $64,000-a-year job in April. The couple has no health insurance, and they are $500 short each month even before buying groceries or gasoline for their cars.

"My paycheck is what keeps us afloat," said Mrs. Obringer, a 2001 graduate of Plum High School. "We have to pray for it to be decent every single time." It fluctuates with the number of patients she gets.

In addition to the student loans, both of them have car loans of about $6,000 each. Mrs. Obringer has another $6,000 in credit card debt, and Mr. Obringer has about $5,000 in credit card debt, a $650-a-month mortgage and a $250-a-month payment on a home equity line of credit.

They frequently find themselves trying to decide which bills they can get away without paying each month. They avoid invitations to hang out with friends. Their working class pride is wounded when others offer to pay. Instead, they record movies from cable television and stay home.

"I feel like a normal person," Mrs. Obringer said. "I feel like we are just like everybody else out there. For a long time I was so ashamed of myself because I felt like I failed.

"And we've had many conversations where I felt like I needed to apologize to him for bringing this onto him, too, whenever he wasn't the one who made these choices [in taking on the student loans]. It was me. And now he has to see how upset it makes me."

The most persistent and aggressive debt calls stem from the student loan with Key Bank. Those collectors refuse to talk to Mr. Obringer because he's not on the loan. He has to stand by while they sometimes bring his wife to tears.

After months of this kind of stress, bankruptcy begins to look like an attractive option, but the private student loan from Key Bank -- which is the most unaffordable debt -- cannot be eliminated in bankruptcy.

Mitchell Allen, author of the new book, "A Survival Guide To Debt: How to Overcome Tough Times & Restore Your Financial Health," said the Obringers, like many others, may have to consider right-sizing their life. That means giving up one of their cars, giving up their house and moving someplace more affordable even if it's with family members.

"They are living paycheck to paycheck, and that's the situation that 53 percent of Americans are in," Mr. Allen said. "There's a sense of entitlement, especially among the younger generation who wants things right now.

"They have a sense that tomorrow will be better than today and they don't always plan for the worst. They had no savings going into the marriage and serious trouble occurred."

At this stage in their lives, every decision they make is tinged with anxiety about where the money is going to come from. They worry the food will run out. They skip meals and rely on inexpensive Ramen Noodles to supplement their diet.

"I fully understand I took out a loan and I promised to pay it back," said Mrs. Obringer, who thinks her payments are too high. "There's only so much I can do. If they would work with me, then we could come to an agreement, and they would get their money."

Close friends and family don't know the full extent of their anguish.

"My mom knows my struggle with the bank," Mrs. Obringer said. "But they don't know how much we are struggling to keep it together.

"When we were dating and even right after we got married, everything was great. If it could have just stayed that way, we would have been so happy. Things just started crumbling before us, out of control.

"Now the only thing he and I have left is our marriage."