A Magical Mental Health Discussion

As the years pass it has become more and more apparent that discussions of mental health are extremely necessary for high school and middle school students. It seems though that these presentations tend to go in one ear and out the other with students, so magician Anthony Grupido brings a more attention grabbing method to Cranberry to help the lesson stick.

Anthony Grupido is a twenty-seven year old magician and keynote speaker from Michigan. He travels all over the world to teach people of all ages about mental health and how to cope with depression, suicidal symptoms, anxiety, and stress. He has gone to many schools, has taught military bases suicide prevention, and has partnered with The Children’s Hospital and US Army to bring his presentations to many different people who seek to improve their quality of life. 

His love for magic started when he was eight years old and his parents took him to Las Vegas to see Lance Burton. From then on, he has had a passion for magic, and this passion has allowed him to open for and speak with The Impractical Jokers, Darci Lynne, and Bill Engvall from the Blue Collar Crew. He has also opened for The Chainsmokers at a company show. Grupido has performed in front of 20,000 people, and has had many opportunities to share his magic and his story with many. 

On March 2nd 2023 Anthony Grupido visited Cranberry, sharing his magic and his mental health story with the students and staff. 

He talks about his own experiences with bullying, suicidal symptoms, depression, and anxiety. Grupido discusses how he was bullied throughout most of his childhood, and changed schools five times over the course of his childhood. He attended a private school in Oxford Michigan for his high school years and participated in wrestling. In his junior year of high school he had a traumatic injury during a wrestling match and had to quit the sport. His home life was toxic, and due to the injury making him lose his scholarship, he attempted suicide three times over four months, and used drugs, self-harm, and alcohol to cope with his depression. After his last attempt, he decided it would never be like this again. 

From there, he began to teach others about healthy ways to cope with mental health, and used magic to catch the attention of the audience. He would teach people about mental health in a way that is both accessible and comfortable for the people he is teaching. 

He tells a story about a family member who was a functioning alcoholic and lost everything. The family member lost his wife, friends, kids, everything. Grupido uses this story to bring light to how bad addiction really is, and uses a real life, close to home story to really give a connection for the audience. 

Grupido also discusses how social media can have negative effects on a person’s self esteem, self worth, and their overall mental health. 

While discussing coping mechanisms, he mentions support groups and the importance of having people in your life that are there to support, help, and love you. Grupido also makes note that you have to be careful with taking the advice of everyone around you

“Someone can love you and can still give you very bad advice,” Grupido stated during his presentation. 

A lot of the tricks that he performs on stage are metaphors for various different struggles relating to mental health. One of his tricks was escaping a straightjacket with chains wrapped around him. As Grupido breaks free of the straightjacket he tells a story. The straightjacket trick, based on the story he told, is a metaphor for breaking free and overcoming obstacles. 

Grupido uses comedy and brings up volunteers to keep the audience engaged, and it was quite the useful tool so that he could have their attention and drive the lessons deeper. 

Throughout the entire presentation Grupido was very open about his mental health, and had no shame in talking about both good and bad things that happened throughout his life. 

“The positive and the negative are a part of the human experience,” Grupido explained. 

Mental health will forever be something that should be educated on, no matter how old you are. It is important to discuss healthy ways to cope and healthy ways to express emotions. No matter where we come from or where we will go, having these tools and having these discussions are extremely important. 

“There are lots of ways our paths and experiences can take us,” Mrs. Motter, a teacher at Cranberry, said to her English class after the assembly. 

The world is full of things, ways, places, and people we can turn to when we need support when in a low point. No matter how stressed, anxious, or depressed you are, you are not alone.

Anthony Grupido states “Magic is a reminder that we have plenty of tools around us.”