Largely to fill a gap of some kind. When I'm busy with work, hobbies and have an active social life I naturally spend less to no time here, like I did for a great part of the last year. I'm unemployed currently, am consequently more isolated and less active, and so I end up spending more time here to fill social gaps and boredom.
It's nice to have friends here to keep up with - some of whom have been genuinely very meaningful to me - and to be able to write and share stuff I often can't in real life. I think a safe space to be and explore myself with people I related to and couldn't find elsewhere is one of the main things I found here in the past. I love writing as a medium of communication and want to keep that in my life. But overall I don't think the forum is a good thing for me so far as I use it to procrastinate from being proactive about being true to and fulfilling my actual needs.
My life and self-perception is on a positive shift at the moment from a long, dark period and I think the consequence is that I'm likely to leave this cave more often until I no longer have a reason to return to it.
