The Watchtower Society infested my life when I was 6 years old and my parents began Studying™ with the JWs. I wanted to quit going to Meetings™ in my teens and had to deal with the ugliness of JW bullying without the support that exists now. Baptized™ at 17, mostly to gain the approval of my parents, I parroted the answers that were expected when was being prepared for Baptism™. By the time I was 30, a health crisis in my life showed me the JWs' true colours, and my doubts reached critical mass. I became interested in Social Psychology and began watching a university course presented on the subject - the lectures about group dynamics and mind control techniques opened my eyes and I decided that I wanted to leave the JWs once and for all. I had to be sure that my family would leave too - it took almost a year for me to convince my spouse that the JWs did not have The Truth™. January 1, 1995 marks when our "fade" began.