I was born in, but back in my teens I really wanted something different. I becamse a regular pioneer because I wanted to do something to help people, but that was not what I really wanted to do. My family was looked down upon in the congregation because we were poor and no matter what I did, I never felt good enough. I finally got mad and rebelled and ended up disfellowshipped for eight years. I wanted nothing to do with it during that time. Then when I was pregnant with my second child, I worked in an office where they had news radio on all day and I heard about bad things going on in the world. Then I read in Newsweek about pollution and I remember being particularly impressed that even aquifers were becoming polluted. I started to read the Bible and pray and ended up going back to the JW's.
I then spent a little over 20 years back in the cult, but was never happy with it. I used to think, I wish this was not the truth. Such a relief to find out it was not. On one level, leaving it was relatively easy since I had an unbelieving husband and children. On another level, I had to go through the fear of being caught, fear of elders showing up at my door, fear of running into JW's. That finally passed and though I am friendly when I run into a JW, I am no longer afraid of what will be said. I have not wanted to get disfellowshipped because I have family still in and they still associate with me. But should that happen, I can live with it.
I am now being shunned by many of the JW's I see when I am out and that is fine with me. Others will still talk and hug me, but the encouragement is there to come back, which I just gloss over. I think it was easier for me than some to leave just because of my family situation.
I also think converts sometimes take a more hard-core approach to the religion because they knew something different before and had to convince themselves that what they knew before was wrong and this was right, so it is harder to leave it for them. Not always, though. Probably this is a more individual thing depending on your circumstances.