I feel like I am still controlled by the religion even though I no longer practice it!
Technically speaking, for your local congregation, your are still a JW since you have not DA'ed or Disfellowshipped. All Jw's are aware of the fact the as soon as someone starts fading, elders will call on them. The elders will keep calling on you till the time you are there on their cards. I can feel your frustration, however, the sad part of all of this is - all of their control on us was voluntarily agreed by us during our baptism (no matter how young we were at that time)
Celebrating Christmas- we agreed not to do it while answering our baptism questions.
Authority of elders- we agreed that elders would be our overseers and that the we would walk as per the spirit directed organization of Jehovah.
A resounding YES before thousands that we are submitting ourselves to WT's control.
Its like this - If a person joins the ISIS or enters North Korea and decides to defy their rules and leave the country, there are bound to be some kind of repercussions.