Hi. I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder 3 years ago, which was greatly affecting my behaviour and stress levels, particularly at work (I’m an optometrist). Escitalopram has been found to massively help with my anxieties and I have managed far better since being on this. However, one of the main side-effects is drowsiness, and this is affecting me quite a lot. Patients have started to notice me yawning every few minutes during their eye test and some of them think I’m bored, or not interested in helping them. I don’t want to have to tell a lot of my patients about my mental health, so what should I do?

I’ve tried other medications, but none of them help with my anxieties anything like as much as escitalopram does. I’ve also tried going for brief walks whenever possible (which isn’t very often, since we’re always so busy!) but this doesn’t seem to help either.