Pay off items on credit or not?

I have 22 negative things on my credit (total shock to myself) so I am currently in the process of disputing some items and having others removed (mostly medical bills and student loans that should have been deferred.) I was told by a lender not to pay off any debt that has gone to collections as this will look bad on your credit and doesn't remove it from your credit. He said things that are over 5 years old really aren't looked at by creditors any how. Well, some of my medical bills are 6 years old, but have a date of March 2011 ( I think it changed in March, because they have been on there for years) and they are scheduled to drop of in January 2012. Also, There are some items on there that are about to hit the 5 year mark. And then there are 3 things on there that are newer (Shapes, they screwed me over). I have tried to dispute this because I was told when I signed with Shape that if somebody got unemployed in my family, then we would be able to put our account on a freeze. Well, that happened and they said they do not have that ability and wanted to charge me the entire extent of my contract. I advised if I could afford to pay the entire extent of my contract I would continue to do so and use my membership, so they sent it to collections...I don't know if I should attempt to make payments on this now that I am in a better situation or not. I cannot see paying for something I didn't even get.