You only get those phone calls if you're not paying anything at all to the creditors and or/ignoring their phonecalls.
If you talk to your creditors explain your situation and are making payments, the phone calls and letters stop.
If you've fully paid off a debt then even if you fail to make payments in future its not coming back to haunt you. Also even apart from psychological considerations there is how soon until a creditor is likely to institute proceedings against you - it's probably sooner for smaller debts.
I have a friend who used to use what he called "the hat system": when a creditor phoned to complain about his account, he'd explain that every month, he put the names of everyone he owed money to in a hat, and then draw names and pay them until his debt paying budget was used up -- and everyone who phones to complain doesn't go in the hat that month.