When the government shutdown began a week ago, many federal workers were more irked than anxious.

They’re really anxious now. What at first seemed like ho-hum political brinkmanship is looking more like a prolonged, punishing shutdown, more akin to the 27-day funding lapse in 1995 and 1996 than the blink-and-miss-it shutdowns earlier this year.

“This one feels different,” said Celia Hahn, a Transportation Security Administration officer at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, who is working without pay and worried about her mortgage and her son’s orthodontic expenses. “If it were to go about two weeks, that’s when people would start panicking.”

Dena Ivey, a furloughed probate specialist in the Anchorage office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, lost many of her possessions during the recent Alaska earthquake, and feels overwhelmed by the man-made disaster now afflicting her family.

“We’re sort of being held hostage in the middle, and we have families and obligations,” said Ms. Ivey, a single mother. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make rent.” She added: “I’m basically living on credit now.”