For me, because I still love all my old friends, I was also scared that I would be tempted to go back and live a lie because of my strong feelings. (I am a bit emotional that way)
I vividly remember feeling like this. As an elder I was aware of those of whom I'd tried to help in the congregation. I'd been pivotal in getting one guy 'activated' again and he let it be known through my family that he was devastated that I'd stopped attending meetings. I remember lying in bed one night faced with the nightmarish thought of actually having to go back and live a lie just so that I didn't hurt people.
But eventually it was time to move on. Thankfully my wife left a couple of weeks after me. She was the one who wanted to go on an Alpha Course and who suggested we try church.
Once we'd gone done that route (about 1.5 months after leaving), it was easier to DA.
My wife wrote a letter, I refused to do so. I was DAd through my actions (exercising my basic human right to change my religion).
I'm glad we're completely out. We get shunned. We got royally shunned at a family wedding recently. My parents were mostly still reasonably personable towards us, but since returning from the District Convention they've gone all hardcore and have been highly disrespectful in their treatment of us, to the point of trying to claim some sort of right to tell our oldest son what is and isn't acceptable to Jehovah (that got them on a "3 strikes and no more unsupervised access to our kids" rule).
I choosing to stay in so that people who don't love you enough to accept you as you are will still talk to you is a painful choice to make in the long run.