Help with skin picking?

I got this suggested as a young person by a ‘professional’ I don’t believe it’s an ethical suggestion for a professional to make, very outdated 

I have skin picking problem as well. For me I do it to my heels, often so bad it hurts to walk. I pick my lips as well, until they are a bleeding mess. I also pull my hair, I love that feeling so much.

One thing that may help is N-Acetyl Cysteine (you can buy this online). It helps with automatic behaviour and addictions including cocaine and alcohol but also has been shown in studies to reduce skin picking.

Another thing which helped me was to cover the area and find a way to forbid doing it. I usually had triggers and it was a habit that I would do without realising, so I put a physical barrier over the skin such as wearing 2 pairs of socks, which serves as a reminder not to start.

If I do accidentally begin picking, I also have a stop mechanism now. Before I would just continue picking forever once I started, often until I was bleeding. It was compulsive. My stop mechanism is to use a pair of nail clippers to trim off the bit of skin with a clean edge and then cover the area with clothing or a plaster because the temptation is to touch the skin, feel that there is a bit that needs peeling or picking and then continue.

I also try to stim more instead, because I've realised it is the physical stimulation that I'm after. So now if I catch myself starting to pick or wanting to, I do a stim with my hand instead.

Yes, I wore elastic bands round my wrists for years and it did help. Try it.. you’ve got nothing to loose! 
I think it’s about replacing the sensation of skin picking with something else… I guess it’s almost like giving up smoking, and vaping or chewing gum instead, replacing one habit for another more safer one :) 

Keeping my skin moisturized helped. 

Skin picking to me feels like a never ending war. Hands, cuticles, scalp, neck, jaw... Even if I find a way to block myself until my wounds heal/scar, I always relapse at some point. The only one I managed to stop is picking at my lips. keeping the skin clear and moisturized using neutral healing lip balm many, many times a day. It became my best technique to diminish all my picking. I realized having dry skin made my compulsive need to pick so much worse. I always carry balm, hand cream, etc. I usually go for products that double as 'cicatrizing' to heal and protect at the same time.

I also cut my nails short and use old gloves from which I cut the 'fingerprint pads' when at home. Specially when I am not doing anything with my hands, like going to sleep or reading.

I was in a similar boat, more with pulling on my hair which didn't have the best results.

I keep my nails short as I find that lessons the damage, and I also have something to give myself to do if I have the urge to pull or pick something to fidget with even if it's a hair bobble. 

I'd also recommend if there are some people you are close to to or spend a lot of time with to tell them so if they spot it they can get you to stop since I often don't even realise I am doing it!

I'll manicure my nails short and see if that helps, and look into a salon near me that could help. One councillor suggested having a hair tie or rubber band round my wrist and snapping it every time I felt the need to skin pick - have you tried this, and if so did it help at all?

I'm going to manicure my nails and keep them short and see if that helps

I obsessed with cutting my nails, since I was 13, after my friend's nails were so neat.

I used to compulsively scratch at my hands, causing open wounds both a stress thing and now what I believe is a stimming thing. I also pick the skin around my nails. For me the only thing that helped massively was getting acrylic nails. You cannot pick and scratch like you can with real nails. I’m very fortunate to have found a very lovely neurodivergent nail person which makes it a totally positive experience. I now stim in other ways which cause far less damage, 

Obviously this may totally not be an option for you.. but I guess the point is if you cannot find something that physically stops you, maybe try something to replace the need to do it?