Hi, I'm a bit late to the post but I thought I would share my experience anyways.
I started exhibiting signs of anxiety when I was about 3-4 years old. I was extremely anxious when I had to go to school, up until I was about 6 or 7. I also had health anxiety from a young age- I worried about diseases like cancer or having a stroke, and any little feeling I had in my body made me feel really anxious too. I started going to therapy when I was about 6, and I was told I had anxiety.
I spent a lot of my childhood very anxious, and it was sad, because there was nothing for me to be worrying about. My anxiety got worse again when I was about 11-12, and in fifth grade I was diagnosed formally (this time from a psychologist) with GAD.
In high school my GAD was barely visible, but I would still have a relapse the odd time and worry obsessively (again, usually health related).
By the time I got to university most of my GAD was well managed, but in many ways I felt like I lost out on a childhood due to my GAD, so I started to 'make up for it' (this is how I thought of it) by abusing alcohol and putting myself in extremely dangerous situations - namely getting black out drunk many times, to the point where if I was in the wrong hands, I could have been raped.
Second year of university, I started feeling more anxious, so I started smoking a lot of pot. It helped, but ruined my performance in school so I stopped after a year. I have not smoked in over a year now.
Right now I would say I'm going through a bit of a relapse and I think I have a bit of social anxiety. I no longer abuse alcohol like I did a few years ago, and drink moderately now. I definitely still worry about my health and I think I'll always have a phobia of disease, but it is managed.
What helped me a lot was CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). A lot of my anxiety was worsened by trying to avoid certain thoughts that made me anxious. With CBT I was able to 'ride through' the thoughts and deal with the anxious feelings as they came.
I was on Lorazepam for a small bit, but it made my anxiety much worse- this is not the case for everyone though, so if you feel like you might want to try medication don't necessarily rule it out.
What I can say about GAD is that it's very treatable, and you will sometimes go through relapses. You're not alone.