I'm not exactly sure how long it's been that I've had this problem. Definitely over a year, maybe multiple years, my memory gets fuzzy sometimes. Anyway, it's worsened quite a bit over the last year. I am not really sure if it's OCD or not, and I have not seen any professionals about it, but I can't stop picking at my skin.
I've never had the smoothest or nicest-looking skin, it often lacks moisture, and I've not always had the healthiest of eating habits, which is reflected a bit in the skin as well. I think this makes my skin especially susceptible to my bad habits. I pick and scratch, and the more I do it, the worse it gets.
Of course, I know it's common knowledge that scratching an itch only spreads rashes. That's exactly what's happened to the back/sides of my neck. It gets all red, bumpy, and irritated and hurts like hell. Not like an ahhh my leg got chopped off kind of pain of course but it's the constant nagging prickling pain that hurts just enough to keep your attention focused on it and give you an almost uncontrollable urge to do something, anything about it even though you know the best thing you can do is to do nothing at all. I do this to myself so easily. It starts by just a bit of an itch and before I know it I'm itching constantly, it becomes a mad urge, and there's a rash. But this at least is a simple matter of resisting the urge to scratch, as it truly does heal up just fine once I manage to stop.
My other compulsion is not so easily dealt with, in fact I haven't really managed to deal with it at all. The picking. It started with my face, like a normal person I would pop a few pimples or whatever. But it developed into a habit of constantly looking for them and obsessing over them. And when my face was no longer enough, I started on the upper parts of my arms. That was alright for a while, although my arms looked awful and I always did my best to cover them up when I was around people. Next I went to my forearms. That at least never got as bad as the upper parts. It seems that the more I pick, the more it spreads, as if my body just wants to feed my fascination. I got so obsessed that I started experimenting with it. I would stop in specific places for a while to see if it would stay spread or if that area would heal. My skin didn't used to be so rough and imperfect - I know that I've caused it myself by picking at it, but it confuses me because I really don't know why I started picking so much to begin with.
When my arms could no longer satisfy my urges, I went on to my shoulders, chest, belly, and legs. I pick at pretty much anywhere I can reach. I've managed to bring the arm-picking to a minimum, which has made me feel a little bit better in terms of being around people (since it makes it more invisible to them), but it seems that the less I pick at my arms, the more I pick at everything else. I just have to do it. Even though I'm sure my skin would heal and be much smoother and more attractive if I stopped, I feel like the only way to fix it is to keep doing it. Often times I do it even without realizing it. The only time I can control it is when I'm around people, as I am too afraid of someone finding out about it.
It is so bad I can't even make myself go a day without doing it. It is wrecking my self-esteem, as, when I'm going around places, I feel almost like I'm wearing a facade, like I'm hiding this ugly, awful secret under my clothes, and I feel so alone. I have not told anyone about it, at least not in real life. I am not prepared to show my damaged skin to anyone, and I know that if I just told a person, they would either think it's not a big deal and dismiss it or they would push me to get help and take some kind of medication, which I don't want.
Recently I have felt more interested in healing my skin, but I have not really found a way I can manage. I thought it might actually be eczema, but I'm not at all sure about that and I have social phobia, so naturally I would be too anxious to see a doctor. I thought about trying to find some ointment, but I am not sure where I'd get it and that ties in with the social anxiety as well. I thought about just trimming my nails so short that I simply can't pick at my skin, but, stupidly enough, I really like having nails that are long enough to actually do things with (like open things, etc.), plus I just like the way they look more when they're longer.
Another thing that has become entangled with the picking issue is hair-plucking. I have an unusual amount of hair on my belly, many of which are thicker, coarser hairs. So a while ago, I started researching ways to make it go away, and I found out that sometimes if you pluck hairs enough, the follicles can get too damaged to grow the hair back. Thus my plucking habit was born. Obviously it didn't work, and although I simply started shaving the hair to keep myself from doing it too much, I have especially fast-growing body hair and I just can't get it all every day. The plucking has been damaging my skin as well and seems to cause much the same issues as my picking.
This has been plaguing my mind day in and day out for so long. Being an extremely self-destructive person, I realize that it's my own fault and that this would probably all be fairly simple to fix, but I am just glad I can express my thoughts here, as I have never been able to do so fully. It is a vicious cycle - the more I do it, the worse it gets, the more I do it, the more I get depressed and hate myself, the more I do it, the more I can't talk about it, the more horrible I feel, the more I do it.

I realize this was a bit long, but thanks for reading