Picking Big Toe

I am 35 yrs old and I pick the skin off the top of my left big toe. It started when I was 15 when I would crack my big toe a lot. This created excess skin at the crack of the big toe where it bends. I started picking at this excess skin for some reason and also kept cracking my big toe. After picking the skin away the underlying skin would become red, and as it began to heal would become glossy and flaky, making the toe look disfigured and grotesque. I did not let it heal before picking at it again as I could not resist the urge to pick at it. This process continued and now my big toe looks pretty messed up, always red from picking at it. The problem that I have is I never let it fully heal for a long period of time before picking at it, and begin the whole process again. The skin on my big toe has become thicker than a normal big toe would be, making it bulge, and it looks really ugly and i am embarassed by it. I have had to hide my toe from everybody, so I avoid going to beaches or go swimming, anywhere where you would have to expose your feet. I wear socks a lot, even during the summer and I just can't stand not being able to be bear feet infront of people. It's very annoying and I hate it, but can't seem to find the will to stop. I'm not even sure if I let the skin heal, if it would heal. There have been a few times where I would go almost 2 months without touching it, and it would look better (not red anymore) but the skin would still be thick and not look like a normal big toe. I even started picking around the big toe nail, at the cuticles and skin above the nail, and the nail itself causing my big toe to look even worse. It just has become a habit to pick at the whole toe. I also still crack my big toe a lot, and has become a bad habit. Not sure if this is doing any harm or making this condition worse. I'm starting to really want to heal my big toe, thought about going to see a podiatrist for advice on healing the skin. Just wondering if anybody has this type of problem. I haven't been able to find anybody with this specific problem. If so or if you have in the past had this condition, please advise. Any advise would be helpful : )