Compulsive Masterbation- Cause or Symptom

Hello every1, I will be pleased if any of you can provide me some valuable suggestion on below:
I have presented my problem in third person as below(as briefly as possible, not to miss out anything):
Seth was a complex child from beginning- extremely shy, deep thinker, very obedient and sensitive, he always stood first in class and other co curricular in school, he had few friends, and loved his overprotective parents a lot. All was well, except the fact that he kept most of things to himself, instead of sharing with his parents and friends. Time passed by , then came the adolescent age, and it became tough by each passing day to hide his emotions and feelings, it needed some vent to flow out. But due to his shy nature, he would not open much with friends, go and talk to girls he liked or seek help from parents for the $#%^ that was going on in his head. He tried booze, #######1, and finally started to masterbate. And this last thing felt way too amazing, as it cleared continuous thought process, even though for a few seconds. Unlike Normal flow, he took this thing way 2 seriously, practising it everyday 2-3 times without fail for next 3 years. Now what changed in these 3 years - he became impatient and could not focus on studies at all in contrast to his past record, and it worsened with each passing day, started planning his study schedule obsessively which he never followed even for single day, compulsively started day dreaming, procrastination almost everything, mood swings, guilt feeling due to bad habit, socially secluded himself and later even leading to social phobia, among others.
At the end of these 3 years, he was totally broke, lost trust in himself, no motivation to do anything, mailnly because- he had promised to himself every night that he will his habits from tomorrow, and that never happened, plus since he was brightest guy at 1 time, every1 including he himself expected him to join a Top Notch University for Graduation, but that obviously did not happen, except a million times in his day dreams. And with all this garbage of extreme guilt,regret, confusion, self doubt, he entered college, and as was expected screwed that completely, practically living no life, except again in his dream world.
Now the college was finished, and our looser turns 22, and this time he is determined to turn the game by 180 degrees by his will and hard work. He tried his level best, but the continuous thought process never let him focus on studies, and , no stable relations, all the time he was preoccupied, day dreaming has been replaced by habit of redesigning the past, and this goes on compulsively in the mind, social phobia, started loosing hair , basically instead of working and designing his future, he kept on regretting on the past mistakes, and this regret is compulsive, and out of his control. He is 27, and the situation is still the same, if not worse. What to do ?

I suggest that Seth should try to see a therapist for a formal diagnosis and to start planning ways to tackle his issues.