Forgiveness on private loans??

I started out with about $90k in student loans, and during COVID my interest rate was close to 12%. It felt like my balance was just exploding every month. Even though my principal was closer to $70k, I was staring at a $90k balance because of all the interest that had piled up. I felt desperate and wanted a way out of those insane interest rates, so I refinanced my loans through SoFi. It felt like the only way I could ever get ahead.

Now my rate is 5.49%, which I’m genuinely grateful for – but I’ve been paying for about 2 years and my balance is still around $86k. I make about $65k a year and I’m putting close to 50% of my paycheck toward these loans, and it honestly feels like I’m going nowhere.

What’s really starting to hit me now is that by refinancing, I gave up all federal protections and forgiveness options. At the time it felt like the right move because of the high interest rates, but now I’m wondering if I made a huge mistake.

My current payoff timeline is around 2035, and the idea of doing this for another 10 years is exhausting and killing me.

Do I have ANY options for forgiveness at this point? Is there any way to get back into federal programs or recover anything? Or am I basically locked into this?

Would really appreciate any advice or insight – feeling pretty stuck and overwhelmed right now.