What happened when you felt overwhelmed by R/T in the busy circuit?
It has never happened on me, yet - I am not one easily overwhelmed, at least not verbally - but I couldn't help smilingly remembering the old adage about the fearsome situation of an engine out when flying at night: "switch on the landing light, see where to find a suitable field. If you don't like what you see, switch off the light again".
Mutatis mutandis: aviate navigate communicate. When (for whatever reason) unable to communicate, continue as planned and as announced, aviate and navigate and
be bold yet careful. You will never cause much of a panic by discontinuing communication yet flying as expected - if you change behaviour without telling anyone there might be solid confusion, at least.
Most fly-ins are in class G airspace anyway (at least over here - you really ought to come and get your share!) so you can never be at fault for not coming on the frequency. There might be some frowns, though... but we all get our part of those.