Fighting inner thoughts seeking calmness but not reaching it

I can relate.

Be aware that well-meaning people will read your post, not realize your situation is outside of their own experience, reinterpret your problem into something that makes sense to them, and then give you useless advice based on their reinterpretation.

I've meditated on and off for years and, although it's pleasant, it sidesteps the real problem without actually addressing it. My conscious mind can be clear but a feeling of subconscious pressure remains, as though I'm in a shelter but I'm still aware of a storm outside that never stops trying to blow open the windows and doors. Have I just not meditated enough? Maybe, but that's unfalsifiable.

The best solution I've found isn't emptying the mind, it's occupying it with pleasing, intentionally-chosen, low-stakes mental puzzles or creative exercises.

This approach doesn't solve the root problem either, just avoids it, but it helps.

This is the human condition -- all of us experience this to one extent or another. Many people have found that practices from Eastern religions, such as breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation, help a lot with this universal problem.