My very stressed out, over-extended kid loves ceramics. It is very zen, which might be a perfect thing for you. It is just enough physical and analytical and social and individual and challenging and aesthetic to be a complete and total therapeutic distraction. Not everything has to be goal-oriented.
If photography does that mind-clearing thing for you, try for that, and if it messes with your schedule too much, fall back on ceramics. But if it were me, I’d go straight for ceramics.