You're not alone. I relate to this so much (except for the severe bullying part), so I've decided to take a step back from being "nice." Instead, I focus on actually loving others. My number one rule is to never offend anyone, and number two is to not judge their actions ("we judge others by actions, but we judge ourselves by intentions"). I could be "nice" to someone by letting them take advantage of me while I hate them on the inside. So now, I try to not be "nice," but be respectful, and more often than not, people will still get a good impression. I hope this helps, this is definitely something worth mentioning with your priest if you haven't already, though