I've taken Lorazepam and clonazepam as needed only. Because tranqulizers can be addicting.
For me however is that the last time I took ativan I had to stop because it as over-powering and I was acting like a drunk ect.. slurring my words, had bad adverse reactions even on the smallest dose.

It did help me in the past, but I found antidepressants worked better for me in terms of GAD which I do suffer from as well. I am now currently on remeron, which isn't an SSRI but it has helped me out greatly.

All medication is different for everyone, sometimes you will have to try a couple different ones before you find the right now. Zoloft worked for me for 8 yrs and it just quit on me, after that I tried celexa, had a terrible time on that so went medication free for a bit to see how I was with the help of my psychiarist, crashed after 3 days and went onto remeron.