When I get overwhelmed I can't relax at all unless I either drink or go to sleep. So I generally just shut down and take a nap.
I'm a uni student and my parents live about 2 hours away... so sometimes when it gets really bad i will escape to their house for the weekend. I can't usually afford to do that though. And they don't know about BP or any MI I have, they just think I'm visiting them. But it's nice to be able to sometimes completely remove myself from the stressful environment