I get what you're saying there, yet people who are hyperventilating can focus and calm their breath!
I absolutely understand the fear of getting help and having a stranger tell you that you have to stop. I don't think that's something that will happen instantly and no one should expect it to happen that way if they understand self harm at all. It's hard to believe those reasons to stop yourself and even harder to hear it from someone else.
Tamo is right about taking it one moment at a time though. There are other things you can do instead of the elastic band thing. I've drawn on myself before and that helps to focus on something else. There's always giving yourself a countdown, like wait 5 minutes, don't do anything harmful, find a distraction of some sort whether that is drawing, mindfulness exercises, doing a bit of tidying, make your bed, etc... and then reassess after the 5 minute are up. If you still want to harm, then do the whole 5 minute thing again until hopefully the urge passes. And that can happen. It takes practice but you might find that the times get longer and the urges pass more quickly.
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