Just to introduce myself and get some help! ~ finger picker

Hi everyone! My name is Lizzy and I'm 19 from England. I only just started looking for this as I thought I was the only person to have this thing! Turns out it's a dissorder and I'm not alone! Yay! Just to warn you first, this account might be triggering... so sorry!! Anyhoo, so this is my story and I'd totally love to find out if anyone else has had the same experiences! I've been this way since I was about 8 actually, which is what scares me most. don't really know why I started picking but the fact is, I did. My mum used to bite the cuticles in the very corner of her nails and it makes me wonder if seeing her do it (she used to bite her nails too) is what triggered me. I used to bite my nails, and I stopped that at a similar time to when I started picking actually. For me, it started with picking at the puffy bits of skin where the nail comes out over the finger tip. I still hate this if it gets puffy, but over time I started picking off and sometimes eating (is that really gross? Do any of you guys do that??) the skin on the pads of my fingers and then all the way down to the middle knuckle on the finger. Just on the inside of hand. I managed to stop for a long time and a lot of the skin grew back, but within recent month I've started up again and there's no real reason as to why. I also do the balls of my feet and the tips of my big toes. I'll cut away the skin in big chunks using nail clippers. They have a purfect curved shape and do the job. The thing is now, because I've been doing it for so long, the skin on my fingers grows back really hard and it's so gross. what's worse is people notice it and I have to make up such dumb lies, like, I knocked the kettle over and scalded my hands as I cought it. PLUS I'm taking my degree to be a costume designer at the moment, and it's affecting m in that pushing a needle through thick fabric is very difficult or very painful, which isn't great news for my profession!! I'd LOVE to hear from anyone who has a similar story, or who knows of how I can get help to stop! Today my fingers are so red, they look like they've been scaled!! It's horrid and I really want to stop! xoxoxoxoxoxox Lizzy