tension...

So for the past week or so there has been this eery tension in my family. My mum can't stop criticizing me and any and everything I say, she can turn it back on me and yell at me for doing something wrong. That is how I know there is tension in the family (when my mum is seriously moody). It's scary because after being yelled at everytime I speak up, I too, begin to develop a certain degree of "peev-ness." Have you guys ever gone thru times when ppl just keep yelling at each other or just don't talk to one another? It's not good. It's so uncomfortable to be at home rite now and I'm afraid to tell my mum that I want to go out to walk around a bit by myself, for the sake of saving myself from yet another verbal attack.
Actually, this is kind of phunnie in that, my mum seriously threatened that she would beat me. Haha. Man, this is what I was thinking when she said that to me, 'it used to work when I was little and did somethign wrong, but I'm not so little anymore and I didn't do anything wrong'. It's phunnie becuase I was sitting there staring at the thin, white bamboo stick she was holding (my younger cousins were being very bad), and old memories came flooding back of my younger days when I had thrown a tantrum or refused to do my homework and my mum would bring out the stick. It's usually used as a warning at first, then you get a lil whack on your hand if still don't listen. So anyways, I was starring at it and when my mum threatened me with it, I'm thinking wha?!?! You aren't serious rite?! I'm 21!!! I didn't dooo anything wrong!! So anyhoos, I walked off, playing with the idea of being beaten by my mum in my head. Honestly, I had a very amusing little skit going in my head - me running away while my mum chases me around the house with a bamboo stick, amusing eh? hahahaha. Oy.
Anyway, tension = oddness + veeery uncomfortable. Someone tell me how to get out of the house without being thrown at by nasty, hurtful words. Help! :O(