I don’t use it as catharsis either, but it is cool to read threads like Simone’s OCD thread (sorry, don’t remember the exact question) and realize that so many people out there have similar quirks.
Sometimes people on here will admit to thinking, feeling, or doing things that are similar to what I do but keep to myself because they make me feel a little nuts, and I don’t want to talk about them with people in my “real” life.
I should add, however, that I would have loved this site when I was a teenager, stumbling around in the wilderness of no information and inaccurate information about female sexuality. The books that my mother gave me to read were fantasy and very unhelpful.