I was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family, Italian, in fact, so very Roman indeed ; )
By the time I was 10 - 14, thereabouts, my fascination with other religions, books on fantasy, etc… led me to turn from the Catholic faith and take up the practice of Witchcraft/Paganism/Sorcery, however you want to phrase it… for my teenage years, I feel from the faith, practicing outwardly not to upset my parents, but not really believing, and in fact doing the opposite. I got into drugs, sex, basically, I did all the stuff you are not supposed to do… note: this is not permission to “expirement” down that route…
Consequently, I suffered from mental health issues, suffered intellectually as well, to a degree.
By the time I reached my early 20’s, I was “agnostic”… my previous experience with sorcery essentially showed me that the people involved were all self-serving hypocrites (one of the reasons I felt justified in leaving the Catholic Faith)…
In college, I worked, and spent part of my spare time studying or meditating on the various faiths and religions out there trying to seek the “one true faith”… there were moments I would return to the RCC for a week or month and then just fall away…
Eventually, I found myself in the working adult world, trying to decide “what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but having no real direction”… my decisions to pursue a career path in advertising had met with personal frustration, because I didn’t like the values of the people I encountered… in fact, I was beginning to understand the effect Sin had on culture and realized that of all the faiths in the world that I spent time systematically studying, Buddhism, Hindu, old mythology, old mystery religions, gnostic beliefs… the Abrahamic traditions might actually be right, logically speaking…
More careful research about Christianity, the different denominations, etc… eventually brought me to realize that the fullness of Christian Faith is within the Roman Tradition… yes, I realize that I was brought up Roman Catholic, but I tried to find every “reason” to follow any other tradition besides it…
Oddly enough, the preaching and witness of many Evangelical Protestants, Baptists, etc… their witness to faith in Christ inspired me to return to Christianity and pretty quickly to the RCC because of the problems I found with the Logic of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura…
I could probably write a small book in 15+ years I was away… but am glad to be back and burning with zeal.