After 15 Years of Psychiatric Medication & Psychotherapies

Unfortunately, this is the best advice I can give

As a postdoctoral researcher, I have read a lot of articles and essays from remarkable, established authors. Among them, Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894–1963) was a highly acclaimed English writer, essayist, and philosopher who once said:

“It’s a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research & study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other.”

Following the same ideology, similar mindsets could be applied in psychiatry, psychology and mental health.

I was diagnosed with acute social anxiety disorder at the age of 15. Now at 30, social anxiety has unwelcomingly accompanied me for half of my life. It had significantly been affecting my everyday life, my studies, my work and my self-worth.

I had had over a dozen years of experience receiving psychiatric and psychological treatments. I had received psychiatric screening, consultation and medication, psychotherapies, including cognitive behavioural therapy, hypnotherapy and self-meditation practice (such as deep breathing and repeatedly telling myself that I am excited — this is a psychological way to trick our brain into believing it is excited instead of being anxious).

My parents had been funding me to see the most established psychiatrists and psychologists who were usually practising in world-leading metropolitan cities, such as Hong Kong, London and Boston. Of course, the consultation and medication fees had been extremely costly. Yet, my family and I believed that having the advice from the best in the industry was the only way for me to be cured.

Yet, after over a dozen years, I had not been getting better.

Until the beginning of 2025, I finished my decade-long higher education and, since then, have had better autonomy to arrange my schedule and work nature.

Also, I visited an audiologist in Singapore, who diagnosed me as having misophonia, which has been triggering my social anxiety in shared spaces. Months ago, I was prescribed a pair of hearing aids designated for people with misophonia or tinnitus.

Since then, my ingrained social anxiety symptoms when being in public have largely vanished. I can focus on my own stuff in shared spaces without my mind going blank; I can go to any cafe or park within my neighbourhood to chill and relax; and I can initiate conversations with others in public. My palms and feet are no longer sweaty. My uncontrollable body-shaking is largely contained. My life satisfaction, after 15 years of suffering, has finally been heading in the right direction.

Final thoughts

As a social scientist with 15 years of acute social anxiety, I had believed in, and been repeatedly disappointed by, psychiatric and psychological professionals’ advice. I had been fooled by the generic assumptions that:

1. Psychiatry and psychology are very complex and technical.

2. Sufferers need to pay for expensive consultation and medication fees to established professionals because they are the best in the industry.

3. These professionals are charging so much, which implies that their expertise and skillset must be top-notch and worth the price.

At the end of the day, if I could have had better autonomy to minimise the encounters with stress and bought a pair of hearing aids designated for those with misophonia earlier in my life, I would not have had to suffer intensely for half of my life.

Sometimes, the ultimate answer does not lie in complex, scientifically sound analysis and self-proclaimed professional advice. The solutions may simply be something that looks very basic to us.

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Thanks for reading my sharing on my mental health journey. If you would like to learn more about (mental) health, personal development and/or (online) education from me, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter below. Also please feel free to browse my blog — Society & Growth — for more content at

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