I think the Armageddon is Coming, Any Day Now, Really Really Soon message got hammered into our thoughts with such urgency, such tenacity, that we were probably powerless to stop it from taking hold. Then there were the ominous warnings of The Composite Sign in Matthew 24 - wars, famines, etc. that everything seemed to fit together. It was as if we'd been "privileged" to understand what others couldn't - that was all part of the scam. All we had to do was put our lives on hold, preach Door-to-Door, go to Meetings and Assemblies and Conventions where all of these thoughts are reinforced, avoid getting too close to outsiders and dissenters (who might undo the brainwashing) and give our money to the WTS. That seems like a small price to pay for such a huge payoff!!
I think the most difficult thing we have to do as we exit the cult is admit to ourselves that we bought into the lie, hook, line and sinker. It can mess with your head that we were so gullible, so DUMB, for so many years. How could I be so *stupid*???? We weren't stupid. We were vulnerable, for whatever reason, and JWs prey on that vulnerability. The WTS are predators. Remember how we were taught to seek out potential Bible Studies: someone who is new to the neighborhood, maybe newly married, newly divorced or separated, or maybe a new baby, or have children who have left home. They are looking for people who may be temporarily emotionally off-balance, in a state of transition, which makes them vulnerable to being ensnared.
Nobody wakes up one day and decides to join a cult. The cult *recruits* you. They have targeted you and played to your vulnerabilities - that's how they've been trained. Vulerable people, including children raised in that environment, have no training or experience in counter-intelligence to effectively do battle with cult mind control tactics. How do you suppose that educated people, doctors, lawyers, engineers, physicists, etc. end up being advertising material in the Awake! magazine??