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Generally, no. Closing an account reduces your total available credit, which can instantly increase your overall credit utilization ratio and lower your score, even if you owe nothing on other cards.
If you are facing a temporary financial hardship (job loss, medical issue), proactively contact your lenders. Many offer temporary hardship programs that may allow for reduced payments or a temporary pause without reporting you as late to the credit bureaus.
If you have high-interest debt (e.g., credit cards), it is often mathematically sound to temporarily reduce retirement contributions to the minimum required to get any employer match and use the extra cash to aggressively pay down debt. The interest you save is a guaranteed return.
If you are highly disciplined and motivated by logic and numbers, choose the avalanche method to save on interest. If you need quick wins to stay motivated and avoid feeling overwhelmed, the snowball method is often more effective.
We judge the probability of an event by how easily examples come to mind. If we've always made our payments, the risk of job loss or medical crisis feels remote. This bias makes us discount low-probability but high-impact events that could trigger a debt spiral.