any advise would be appreciated I have today been diagnosed with GAD (general anxiety disorder) and panic disorder what medication did you find best?
Basically mate you have a bucket load of options, worst bit is that finding "your solution" tends to be very personal. Take all of this with a grain of salt, I'm not a doctor.
As to time being a healer - meh, I have had anxiety all my life and i've found it can get worse over time in some circumstances - if you're prone to it you're in it for the long haul and accepting that is hard but it also helps a great deal. Another important lesson I figured out is that panic and anxiety are different things - they are intertwined but they are different, and stuff that works on your panic may be additional to stuff that works on your anxiety.
Don't discount meditation and therapy. They take more effort than popping pills but are rewarding.
In terms of vitamins try taking Vitamin D and Magnesium Chelate - they are more about setting a baseline over the long term than any quick fix though.
In terms of something that can help you relax but is quite mild without much in the way of rebound you have mild sedatives like Valerian and Chamomile, Passion Flower, Lemon Balm, Gotu Kola etc, and for me Licorice Root tea was a favourite for taking me to a nice chilled space. I have run out of it, but will likely get more.
Medications wise, docs will likely try you on an SSRI or SNRI - I don't recommend this personally unless you've tried other means first, short term use of SSRIs is probably OK, my GF used them short term without any ill effects, but long term use they are incredibly difficult to come off. Besides, there is also the rollercoaster of which particular SSRI works for you and getting on the drug (the settling in period) is not pleasant either.
Don't discount older drugs - I found amitryptaline worked well for me but as it wasn't prescribed to me I've never plucked up the courage to just ask for it. Because what do I say to my doc - I took this before without a prescription and it worked?
Some anti-histamines are nice for anxiety and getting to sleep, I found Chlorphenamine to be nice.
As others have said, Beta Blockers work well for acute panic. They are not something I would take every day, but instead just pop one if I were having a panic attack and knowing they are there is a great re-assurance that keeps panic from surfacing. Valium can work in a similar way if you have the self discipline - used only for emergencies when you're freaking out.
I don't recommend potentially addictive stuff unless you know you have very strong discipline - things like benzos, phenibut, baclofen, pregabalin and so on. Long term use of any of those is unlikely to make you any better anyway and might well make you worse.
So you have a ton of options at least, that is the positive thing.
The absolute best tools I have found are CBT and mindfulness. Anything that challenges the anxiety thought loops that cause you to miss the present by catapulting you constantly into the past (fatalism, cynicism) and into the future (worry, projection) is a good tool.
