“I loved my job,” Carlie said, but she couldn’t see any way to handle interacting with large numbers of the public every day.

“I would probably have a panic attack going in and leaving, when I got home, I would just be on constant anxiety and stress,” she said. “I just saw myself. I said, If I go back to work, I will have a mental breakdown. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to get out of it.”

So she quit, and instantly one stress became another. She is confident she will be able to find work she can do from home, but in the meantime, money will be tight.

Carlie’s boyfriend also works at the casino and plans to return to work. The reopening plan has been postponed, but the casino will inevitably reopen. She isn’t sure how she will handle that.

Brown said these kinds of stress responses aren’t uncommon. Stress and depression can affect more than just mood. Sleep can be difficult, a person’s appetite can change. And “the longer stress occurs, the worse it tends to be on you unless you figure out ways to handle it or normalize it,” he said.

He recommends that people afraid of contracting COVID-19 try to change their thinking. “If you can change your thinking you can change how you feel,” he said. For this anxiety in particular, he said, “I think you have to look at it from the odds are in your favor,” advising people to avoid worst-case scenario thinking.