<human>: Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?

Ok, so I graduated in may and am starting to really realize how in debt I am. 

A little background: I went to college at a really expensive private school that I couldn't afford. I only spent 3 years there but ended up with shit tons of loans to pay for it. My mom pretty much handled the money stuff, and I ended up with 35,000 in PLUS loans and another 18,500 in Stafford loans. The Stafford loans are all at a fixed interest of what seems to be 6.8%, but the PLUS loans are 8.5%.

Right now I am just starting grad school for a PhD in physics with a tuition waver and a small stipend, which would give me the option to defer, but from my understanding I would just be building up even more interest during this time. 

I really don't have any idea how I should be handling this. I never really realized how much I had in loans, and my mom was very reluctant to give me information about them until recently. My boyfriend and I have discussed buying a house together in the next couple of years, but I am afraid this debt is going to make any other investments nearly impossible.

My plan right now is to throw as much of my research assistantship stipend into my loans (while still paying for rent and food), but the total just seems so overwhelming. Has anyone faced this kind of situation or have any advice to offer? I am just feeling really alone about this right now, and starting to seriously lose sleep over it (like right now).
<bot>: I fucked up and have ~53,500(plus interest) in high interest student loans and don't know how to get out from under them