I AM O2Y

Spring is now in full bloom, so things are looking up. At least, that’s what is to be expected, right? But for those of us who are battling anxiety or depression, we may not feel the same alleviation. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 38,285 deaths were caused by suicide in 2011, which translates to approximately 734 deaths per week. The rate, however, unfortunately grows even higher when the flowers start to blossom. Winter has a reputation for being the most brutal, so why is it during the season of rebirth that most people decide to take their own lives?

Biometeorologist Grady Dixon from Mississippi State University states that he discovered two potential theories that explains the tie between spring and suicide. Dixon hypothesizes that when the season arrives, people with severe depression are motivated to take action and follow through with taking their own life. Winter, on the other hand, often freezes their desire to make a plan to do it when they feel overwhelmed and disengaged. Dixon’s second theory proposes that people are usually aware that they are affected by seasonal depression. So when spring finally comes and they don’t feel better, they feel isolated from those who do recover.

There’s so much tragedy involved with growing up—responsibilities and bills pile up, breakups happen when you love the wrong person, and the people who you couldn’t wait to see each day are now the ones you hesitate to contact. It doesn’t get easier, but we want to remind you that there will always be moments in between that make things okay. Psych2Go shares with you 5 things to remember when you want to give up on life:

1. Your problems are temporary, but suicide is not.

When people are in the process of committing suicide, their lives replay in their head, and right then and there, they wish they could go back and stop themselves when they realize that their problems—every single one of them—could’ve been fixed. But when you decide to kill yourself, you don’t have the option to grow out your regrets. It’s cold, permanent, and forever…

You may have heard about the efforts in Europe to reform copyright law. The debate has been ongoing in the European Parliament for months. If approved next week, these new regulations would require us to automatically filter and block content that you upload without meaningful consideration of your right to free expression. 

We respect the copyrights and trademarks of others, and we take all reports seriously to ensure that your creative expression is protected. We make this clear in our Community Guidelines. There’s already a legal framework that works and is fair: Today we take down posts and media that contain allegedly infringing content when we receive a valid DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request. We also provide clear-cut ways for people to fight back if they believe their removed content was not a true violation. These instances are monitored and reported and live in our biannual transparency report. 

The suggestion to use automated filters for issues of copyright is short-sighted at best and harmful at worst. Automated filters are unable to determine whether a use should be considered “fair use” under the law and are unable to determine whether a use is authorized by a license agreement. They are unable to distinguish legitimate parody, satire, or even your own personal pictures that could be matched with similar photographs that have been protected by someone else. We don’t believe that technology should replace human judgment. Tumblr is and always has been a place for creative expression, and these new regulations would only make it harder for you to express yourself with the freedom and clarity you do so now.