There is likely no good medium- or long-term benefit to venting, especially when it's defined as physical violence directed at objects or verbal aggression directed at people. That's pretty clear.
But one of the best pieces of advice my therapist gave me was that under extreme stress, sometimes the only path to making it to the next minute intact is to do something where the long-term benefit isn't clear, or even negative. In those moments, the best we can do is focus on preventing harm to others and minimizing harm to ourselves. (This isn't just about venting, but other stress and trauma reactions.)
If a situation is so terrible that there's a chance of having a more brutal breakdown (or in my case, a suicide attempt) if we don't throw a plastic cup at a wall, or scream out the pain, or otherwise do something stupid for that short burst of peace with a relatively high cost, then we won't make it to a point where we can reflect on how we got there, and how to actually get to a better place in the medium- or long-term.
Cycles of venting are bad, because constantly venting means constantly being under stress, which means it's harder and harder to step away from it to recognize the sources of the stress and break that cycle. But as a response to a peak in stress, or a sudden trauma, it's a tool - not the best tool, not even a good tool, but if it's the _only_ tool I can reach in time, the advice I got (for myself, which I am not a therapist, and which may not be relevant to you) was to not second-guess whether to use it.
You, being vaguely competent, are where you are because it is a local optima.
Always, to progress to a better state, you are going to take at least some steps down a hill to get there. Sometimes a lot of them. We end up in situations bc the paths past/out of them are not obvious or easy.
Don't let an obsession for every step being 'improvement' prevent you from taking the messy up and down path to get somewhere better.
But one of the best pieces of advice my therapist gave me was that under extreme stress, sometimes the only path to making it to the next minute intact is to do something where the long-term benefit isn't clear, or even negative. In those moments, the best we can do is focus on preventing harm to others and minimizing harm to ourselves. (This isn't just about venting, but other stress and trauma reactions.)
If a situation is so terrible that there's a chance of having a more brutal breakdown (or in my case, a suicide attempt) if we don't throw a plastic cup at a wall, or scream out the pain, or otherwise do something stupid for that short burst of peace with a relatively high cost, then we won't make it to a point where we can reflect on how we got there, and how to actually get to a better place in the medium- or long-term.
Cycles of venting are bad, because constantly venting means constantly being under stress, which means it's harder and harder to step away from it to recognize the sources of the stress and break that cycle. But as a response to a peak in stress, or a sudden trauma, it's a tool - not the best tool, not even a good tool, but if it's the _only_ tool I can reach in time, the advice I got (for myself, which I am not a therapist, and which may not be relevant to you) was to not second-guess whether to use it.