"ELO hell" + I'm bad?

So last season I sat comfortably in the Silver ELO (I almost made it to Gold! :)) I felt confident that this is the ELO I should be in... that this is the ELO I should be learning in and progressing from. I won some, I lost some. But I felt the losses were usually close and I performed well but had been outplayed (which I usually feel OK about, I play to perform well and learn, not to win).

_Transition to this season... _

I'm placed in Bronze, which I understand, that's part of the game! Time to climb, should be easy since I'm a silver player... or so I thought. I feel like I'm at the bottom of the LoL community here... where the toxic sludge stick at the bottom contaminating anything that gets close to it. I get trolled so often in this ELO I have to take breaks at least once EVERY game ( in fact, I just had a back seat ping my lane all game then proceed to feed late game by charging down the mid lane chanting "CHARGE" into the towers/enemies). It's ridiculous! On top of that, I'm being outplayed by the enemy laner! They play very well, better than most silver players I know. Which isn't an issue, I enjoy the challenge! But I'm having a harder time in Bronze than I did in Silver! Is there some sort of reason for this?

**Are there any people out there that feel like lower ELOs can be harder than higher ones? **

I'd like to read some of your answers/advice, thanks for reading. :)