I would have never went to the elders on my own accord but my grandmother who raised me would run me to the elders almost every week for every little thing. It was ridiculous. This particular elder she would always run me to was my best friends dad and he really liked me and thought my grandmother was a nutcase, which she was and he told her that she doesn't need to be running me to the elders for every little thing, to deal with it at home.
Then another time when I really did do something bad (fornication) she found out about it because she was going through my garbage can in my room (which she did on a regular basis) and found a condom so she threatened me that if I didn't talk to the elders she would so I was forced to talk to them but the elders on my JC were pretty cool about it, because they knew I had issues due to my grandmother being emotionlly abusive with me my whole life and they felt sorry for me, so they only privately reproved me.
I guess I had some pretty cool elders, plus I was with the "in" crowd which helped.