Should I continue to play Normal Draft, or play ranked despite my low ELO?

I've been playing more Normal Draft games than ranked lately, as the last time I went and played ranked, I went down in ELO pretty fast, and was never able to grind back up to where I really wanted to be in. At least 1200 ELO.

I will admit that I wasn't that great, so I decided to get off of ranked for a bit and play Normal Drafts, which is to an extent, just like ranked, but it doesn't punish you as hard for being a bad player. I've played well around 50 ranked games, and my ELO just made me want to cut myself. I've gotten better and chosen an additional role to my main role, which is support. I've read about matchups, counterpicks, and all that stuff, and gotten a chance to practice mid a little bit more. I play AP mid assassins, like Diana, Akali, and Katarina, and LeBlanc. I also got into Lux, Kennen, and Ryze.

The thing about normal draft is that as much as I consider it practice for ranked games, it doesn't feel competitive enough for a very competitive player like myself and I've played so much of it to the point where I play normal drafts exclusively. And the thing about ranked is that if I just enter it again, I'll just drop down substantially to low elo, and it's going to be hard to grind my way up again. Low ELO is something I'd rather avoid being in.

I watch tournaments a lot. I've watched streams almost every night, and study the game and read guides as much as possible. I'm quick to pick up on my mistakes and can be very critical of it. When I lose a game, I know it's my fault. I really want to enter the competitive scene again, but my gut feeling is telling me not to do it.

Should I play ranked or should I continue playing in normal draft?