» Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:07 am
This is a known bug. Since you are on the PC (or else your mention of tab and q are very odd) you can open the console and wait for 10-15 seconds, I saw on the uesp wiki that doing so might help. Worth a try, anyway.
Personally, I've never gotten ESC to work when this happens. Fortunately, this only happens to me when leaving Blackreach, which has like six exits, so I just try another exit.