How to get skin to heal?

I have had a problem with picking/chewing the skin off of the side of my nails for as long as I can remember (i am 26 and can remember doing it as far back as 8) I am so tired of having this problem and whenever I think i have the problem kicked it just starts back up again. I am giving it an honest effort again and I think if I could get the skin to heal faster and not leave anything to pick that I could stick with it. As it is my mind is always trying to justify picking the skin off like (If I pick this off then my finger will be smoother and people wont notice) but that just causes a bloody mess. Any tips on getting the skin to heal as fast as possible would be great! Also, the skin around my nails is red (from constant picking) any way to help that?

Thanks in advance!