I'd never encountered gray rocking until reading your story about it, but I recognize it as an update to a simpler technique I used 40 years ago during a particularly trying time: You hold a rock in your hand, feeling its smooth surface, when you're feeling safe and untroubled. Then, when you're feeling unsafe or troubled, you hold it in your hand and feel its smooth surface to re-create the calm feeling you associate with it. This was effective as a technique for getting through that trying time. It might have been better--as you point out-- to have taken advantage of mental health resources, but I had no medical insurance.