I write this having just arrived home from a friend's birthday party.
Three things have kept me from being depressed today. The first of these is alcohol, which I wouldn't recommend for everyone but which I think is fine in moderation. I am currently tipsy without being properly drunk, which means I'm sober enough that I can still construct sentences in my head but I'm drunk enough to make the process of typing those sentences rather more haphazard than it might otherwise be.
The second is exercise. I arrived at my friend's house nice and early to help set up the party. I've been cooking and cleaning and shopping and gardening and it's been great. I know that exercise is a well known and much recommended cure for depression, but I still find myself surprised at how effective it can sometimes be.
The third is good friends. One of the most important parts of my recovery has been re-kindling old friendships and making new ones, and the people I'm friends with now are some of the best people I've ever met. I'm still an introverted person, but that's changing for the better and it's because of these people.
It's good to sit around in someone's back garden drinking wine in front of a roaring bonfire and just feel like I'm able to relax. And it's an odd feeling to know that, without even knowing they were doing it, the people I'm sitting with have made me into a better person. I should probably tell them some time.