How do you know for certain they’re screwing with you, rather than your just assuming they are? What do they say when you ask them to stop? Seriously, if they’re your friends, you should be able to be straight with them about how you feel. Within a certain level of civility of course.

On the one hand, your friends should respect you enough to not jerk you around if you genuinely ask them not to. On the other hand, if you feel everyone is jerking you around, that may be more your perception than their intent.

Not intending to preach, but I don’t see how deep-seated bitterness can be healthy overall for ones emotional wellbeing. Trying to ferret out the root of it and foster genuine non-threatening relationships would seem helpful to that end. Although, I imagine dredging up pain so one could get rid of it would initiate quite an enormous rant or two or three. So if you were to rant, you might warn them about it or ask them if you could rant for a while.

Although, speaking for myself, sometimes starting to complain about something gets me going more than lets off steam.