It had to be denial. There is no way you could have been an adult jw between 1966 and 1975 and not have been inundated with written, verbal, and casual comments about 1975 and its implications
I completely agree with Blondie on this. Except you certainly didn't have to be an adult to have been inundated with it. If you were older than 6 or 7 you heard this week after week, meeting after meeting, assembly after assembly, circuit overseer after circuit overseer. It caused nightmares, anxiety, loss of concentration, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, resentment and loss of relationships in families. It caused people to not seek higher education or even to finish high school. People quit jobs and spent all retirement money.
I ignored the message. I would have rather died in Armageddon than lived in eternity with the JWs. I left in 1973. My younger sister almost failed high school. She saw no reason to study in high school. She became very anti-social. She never strayed far from my mother and a very few close friends. Those friends have all gone on with their lives now. My mother has passed away. But my sister hasn't changed much. She's still anti-social. She stays in her house most of the time except for going to work. She was always taught not to make friends with "worldly" people and she still lives that way. She has told me that she still occasionally has nightmares about September 1975. She was frozen in fear. She expected me, especially, to die because I had left the JWs. My sister has never gotten over it. She was 15 when 1975 came.
I hate the JWs.