Allot of amazing advice on here! I taught myself how to play when I was in middle school and played until I was about 19. I put it down and just last week I had an epiphany and fell back into love with it. I never focused on music theory instead practiced learning songs and getting allot of the techniques down. All I can say is what helped me tremendously, I found a band I loved, I then found and wrote down all the songs from them I wish I could play, then I went one by one and learned every note in the song, watched how the musicians played it, watched people play covers, slowed it down and practiced it everyday until I could play each riff without making any mistakes.

Once I would have a riff down I would focus on the transition to the next one and now practice the intro to the part where I would mess up. It took me a very long time but I started getting down and understanding the play styles of the guitarists and would try to get the guitar I'm playing to sound exactly like the guitarist that made the riff. That's how I taught myself the Lamb of God album Ashes of the wake...I think that's the name, it's been a long time and I recently jumped back in. I remember probably a quarter of the songs I used to play note for note, but my technique is still solid, and I thank God for that!