This is a big question, however, it boils down to one simple determination. If you are unable to pay your debts and your life is being so disrupted by threats, lawsuits and/or attachments that you cannot function you should consider bankruptcy. This does not mean necessarily that bankruptcy is the only avenue available to you--it's just one option that should be considered. Without knowing all your financial problems it is impossible to say specifically what you should do. For example, if your debt consists of taxes bankruptcy will not get rid of most of them. If your debt consists of credit cards you can negotiate these debts down by just using the threat of bankruptcy. That is, a credit card company will take 25 cents on the dollar rather than get nothing, and most credit card companies get nothing in a bankruptcy because this debt is unsecured by lien or other encumbrance on any of your properties. If your debt is a mortgage, most banks today are willing to refinance your home rather than have it come back to them. Banks are not in the real estate business and they do not want your home---they simply want you to pay for it.
An accumulation of debt sometimes makes the future appear more bleak than it really is. I would suggest that you take each debt you owe and attempt to work out a better pay arrangement with the creditor (even IRS will work with you). After you have achieved the very best result you can with each creditor, you will be in a better position to evaluate your financial picture. If you still cannot meet your debt obligations you can always file a Chapter 13, which is just simply a pay schedule imposed upon the creditors by the Court.
One other consideration is that the Court may not let you file for Bankruptcy. It used to be that if your debts exceeded your assets and you did not have the ability to pay all debts as they came due you were considered to be a proper candidate for bankruptcy. Currently, however, the law prefers the payment of indebtedness over a discharge. This makes it tougher on the debtor but in the end it may save you years of misery. Bankruptcy stays on your credit history for 10 years, and if there is any way to clean up your financial disorder short of bankruptcy you need to seriously make an effort to try it. You won't regret it. Good luck.

Professionally speaking, bankruptcy is far and away more benficial for the debtor than those "credit counseling schemes". Your credit is just as harmed; andy time a lender has to charge off any principle or interest, your "rating' goes down.
Speak with a BK atty ( though they are hard to find) and make use of the free consulation.
The "law" doesn't have a" preference" of payment over discharge.