Personally I keep reading to overcome that passage. But when it is a chapter after another (I'm reading Notre-Dame de Paris atm) it gets more difficult to chill back. I overcame 3 tension-making chapters and now I got into a chiller one, but I felt tired, my stomach still burnt so I decided that, for today, is enough, I may take a break.
My only "fear" is that I won't take back a book I took down during a tough one part for me (even if, as I've just said, I went over It).

QUESTION
 I may wonder: what do you guys find yourselves doing in 'that' situation?

Lots of love xx!