Cathartic

ca-thar-tic (k-thärtk)

adjective
1. Providing emotional relief.
Today, Michael Rosen posited that: "Writing is essentially textualised thought" [sic]. Meanwhile, my sister suggested that writing is cathartic; it lets her get all of her pent up emotions out and onto the page.*

Synonyms: bitching, cleansing, relaxing, soothing, venting.

2. Providing digestive relief by cleansing the bowels, like a laxative.
I never take more than one shot of espresso in my lattes. It upsets my stomach. Espresso is too cathartic.

Synonyms: abstergent, aperient, eliminatory, evacuant, evacuative, excretory, expulsive, laxative, purgative.

noun
1. The thing that causes the aforementioned kinds of relief.
Hellosaferide's Long Lost Pen Pal was her emotional cathartic as a young woman.
Also, see image on right.

Synonyms: many of the same words listed above (believe it or not, I really don't like talking about poop).

*As a method of writing, this is known to produce the worst kind of poetry (no offense intended toward my sister).