My practicing went nil for the last two years.
I read well but prefer to play by ear.
I took lessons from 1-11 grade. Then the rest of my life I've just actually played for church (usually) or in a band, until I got really depressed a few years ago and stepped away from it. Now I want to go back.
I used to use music as therapy. When I was depressed, I would go into a pitch-black room and play in the dark, whatever I felt at the time. Music helps me transcend the crap and dirt in this life and takes me somewhere else, I literally am exploring the cosmos if I sink deep enough into it. I feel like I am sitting on a mountaintop and seeing literally everything in the universe and am part of it, my awareness becomes so broad.
Yes, if you don't practice, technique will get rusty. The improve/creative stuff won't diminish as much, but the more situations you musically put yourself in, the more you'll hear and be able to respond to in the future, and the you have to build on with new responses to the music.