Most people experience the ups and downs in life. Likely it is impossible not to. But little seems known about its cause. People try to make their lives better. They try to feel happy. So what is it that takes them down, that makes them feel worse?

The mechanism is actually quite simple. You try to make your life better. You do in fact improve yourself. But there is someone else who is in your vicinity who wants you to go down, stay down. Now before you say that is impossible as it seems too simple, understand that this is a phenomenon that has been out of view of many for time immemorial.

For a start it is important to realize that there are fundamentally only two types of people in this world. This was discovered by philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. There is the person who specializes in getting things done, makes things happen and builds the world. This person is fairly visible. He is out there. He may even be you.

The other type of person is that which specializes in destroying things, destroying people, making less of life and those around him. Unfortunately he lies in hidden terror of others, for his own reasons, he figures that to protect himself he must reduce others around him, must make them less able, make them smaller.

This type of personality is not the angry man, the robust but upset individual who is mad at life. It is more likely to be the person who is quietly behind the scenes manipulating the thoughts of others, turning one person against the other, the one behind, destroying the angry man – behind the person who is upset, pleased that there are now people in conflict. For in a conflict both sides are depowered, made less. That leaves the destructive individual the victor and stronger than he was in comparison to those he arranged to be in conflict.

The trick in realizing that one is suffering the ups and downs is to first realise that there are such destructive people around. These destructive people are indeed sick. But there are not many of them, compared to the rest of us.

The next thing is to learn the tools necessary to spot them. To do that one must learn more of the personality of this destructive person, which we call the Anti-social Personality. There are twelve personality traits by which we can recognize this Anti-social personality. The first three traits are:

He or she speaks only in broad generalities.

Such a person deals mainly in bad news, critical or hostile remarks, invalidation or general suppression.

The Anti-social Personality alters, to worsen, communication when he or she relays a message or news. Good news is stopped and only bad news, often embellished, is passed along.

The rest of the traits are longer and too long to list here.

But there is a Social Personality too. For the Social Personality, the reverse to the above traits are true. And so whereas for the Anti-social Personality another trait is that his associates tend to be unwell, the friends and associates of the Social Personality tend to be well, happy and of good morale.

It is very therapeutic to spot who is making you worse, and who it is good to be around.

The Church of Scientology offers a course that teaches you how to overcome the ups and downs in life. The lessons are easy to understand. Once you know the Anti-social personality, he or she clearly stands out from the Social Personalities. You can then address them correctly in life.

This article is to let you, the reader, know that it is not hopeless if you find yourself in this condition. You can get yourself out of it, very naturally. You are not strange or unusual for experiencing the ups and downs in life. You are quite normal. You are just nearby to someone who slowly is doing you in.

I also recommend you read the book, Introduction To Scientology Ethics, by L. Ron Hubbard. It has these course materials in it, and can be found in many libraries.

Good luck! You do not have to suffer the ups and downs in life again.