Tank Items When Behind in Lane

I'm not asking for anything here, because this is more of a feeling than a constant problem, but when you fall behind in lane for any reason - counter picked, spectacular early gank, screw up - tank items seem a world away from reasonable. I don't feel this problem exists when the lane is a stalemate or when I'm winning, but it is sheer misery when you get camped, can't buy items, and your team either won't respond or doesn't know they should.

I'm wondering a few things:

1. Is this a prevalent feeling with you top-laner tanks?
2. Is there a reasonable way to shake off a double-gank barring team support?

Some of this is obvious. If you're behind, you shouldn't be building items as if you were ahead. I get that. But also it shouldn't feel like a slow decent into oblivion. One of the major problems with this game is the snowball, FF @ 15 mentality that's all too common. Full disclosure, I'm in Bronze, trying earnestly to carry myself out, and if I'm being honest, you can often quickly assess that the enemy knows how to rotate, communicate, and read a map, while our team is asking what an objective is. Those games are just practice-mode improve-yourself situations. But we need to do more in terms of turn-around options.

As a top-lane tank, I'd love a system-wide acknowledgement that comeback are possible. And I feel as if getting the utility of tank items is a barrier that prevents this, at least in one aspect of the game.