I really appreciate you for replying to my post. I posted it right after an appointment I had with a new reputable dermatologist and I was not happy after spending more than 2 hours at his clinic.
He didn't make a diagnosis, insisted that my lips are just 'dry', prescribed a non steroid cream (Protopic), and completely dismissed every word that came out of my mouth. He refused to acknowledge that there is an internal underlying problem that is persisting this awful lip condition for over 5 years and said 'you're young you don't have to worry about anything'. The derms only want to treat things from the outside in instead the other way around.
My PCP has been too stubborn to even refer me to a specialist MD that also uses functional/integrative approaches. I've been given recommendations online but they are very expensive.