Oh well, this is kinda personal, but anyway...
I'm a horribly shy person. Everytime I'm around someone new, I get extremely scared and thus kinda awkward, 'cause I don't want to say anything that might be embarrassing - at least in my view. A few months ago I wouldn't talk to anyone I didn't know and isolate me from the rest of the world.

FFXIV helped me to overcome this constant fear of being "the awkward one". Not did I only make a lot of new friends, I also started to open up more ingame - and also in real life. Since I've been playing FFXIV I gained much more confidence with myself and with how I act.

So for me, this game is kind of a self-therapy-thing. I keep playing it because it helps me to focus (esp. when raiding), to learn to talk to different people and to actually feel good about what I'm doing.