I feel like beta-ing helps me w/my own writing, & besides which it's a nice thing to do for people, so go you. ;) Also yay for being satisfied w/the progress you're making so far!

Sometimes when there's a lot of RL stuff going on I abandon fic to deal w/it but sometimes I cling to it even more fiercely as a coping mechanism when things get stressy. I guess it depends on just how stressed I get!