music = therapy?

now that the recording process is done, we have a few really awesome shows coming up and i'm stoked for them. but i've also been thinking (perhaps overthinking) whether music, to the extent i am involved in it, is a good thing or not. here's my deal:

--I use music to help me forget problems. This is nice for a while, but i think that it also hinders me from actually dealing with the problems.
--Music is the best expression of who i am. come to a Tiger Cub show and watch us play... you can't truly understand any of us until you've done that.
--I write songs (not any that anyone has every heard) about exactly how i feel about something. this is good for me to let out these feelings, but i also have a hard time letting my mind be changed about something once it's in song form. if i write something in a song then i sing it over and over until i can play it from memory, and that means the words are embedded in me. some of the words and ideas i've written aren't the best things to have going around in my head all the time. i guess it's a reminder of how things were/are... but that can be a painful reminder and non necessarily a good way of dealing with it.
--I play music so much that i am crazy behind in school. not good.
--Music is what i want to do for the rest of my life. it really is a lot of work to play music and it takes a lot of patience and practice, i think it's as legit as any other job out there. It's also difficult because music is so personal that it can be very emotionally straining.
--Music is my favorite form of art.

yeah, there are a lot of pros and cons there. i think the biggest deal right now is that i need to push music back just a little and work on school. that's really hard for me. i have to put a lot of effort into limiting my music intake/writing and transferring it to scholastic endeavors. and as for whether music helps or hinders me in getting over things emotionally... i'm still not sure. i think that's something i'm just going to have to live and learn a bit more. some days it feels like it's the cure, and others it feels like it's tearing my heart open.

Sincerely,
Siberian