Wish I had an easy fix for ya.

What has worked for me thus far, is simply wanting sobriety badly enough.

I was one of those sharp kids growing up, "He's going to be a big deal!", and then I started getting high- fast forward 19 years- and I'm still in the same exact place I was when I started.

Stopped smoking on March 4th 2014, and it's crazy how much I've gotten done in that short time (mid April now).

Some days it's hard. I get that feeling like "I could totally smoke one and there would be no harm", but I know me (Moderation? What is that???).

You have to want it for yourself, accept that life without a buzz is going to be rough at first (the length and severity is different for everyone). But I swear, once you rediscover how to enjoy things without getting high, you'll wonder at why you ever started, and at the wasted time.

I know dudes who didn't quit until they were 50, and they feel the same way about it, so never mind your age, or particulars. It's never to late to get straight.

Your here at this page, so clearly your more than just a buzz, your a person with positive stuff you want to share with the world, you want something real, you want a real life.

It's sounds all silly and Tony Robbins for me to say it, but just reach out and take it back. You need to want it bad enough.

I'll just write, speaking for myself.
Remembering why I wanted to quit is not enough, as "addiction amnesia" sets in. Journaling to help remember is not enough, as I can easily discard the journal.
Wanting to quit super badly is not enough, as eventually even if it is a year later, I'll forget why I wanted to quit so badly, or even if I remember, that memory lacks the same intense feelings of cyclical inertia, depression, uselessness, exhaustion, financial drain, emotional despondency, social shallowness (cloaked in communion) and external dependency. Even if I don't fully forget those feelings, it isn't enough because I might have nostalgia or cravings which overpower my desire to quit.
Exercise, art, work and other positive energy consumptive activities are not enough, as eventually I get used to the sensations of these, take them for granted and then the addict in me that ever reaches for more eventually wants more and reaches for that most favorite numbing and delusion-invoking cloud of the weed.
On online or in-person support group for me was not enough, as eventually I grow tired of them both, and my mind justifies why I don't have the time for it, and why with what little time I have I just want to chill the fuck out and let my nerves relax. I'll discard these groups like this when I feel overwhelmed and busy, but if I go through a longish phase where I feel really good I'll also discard them because I'll trick myself into believing I don't need them.
Avoiding old friends and places where drinking and smoking is happening is not enough, as the urge comes from within anyway, and I can also procure and then isolate. Yeah sure, these external factors do speed up my relapses, but all the same, it comes from within.
Making new, sober friends and checking in with them regularly - another wonderful act which is supremely helpful, is not enough, as the ego maniac mixed with inferiority complex within me can also easily blow these people off when my phase or outlook shifts.
Examining my triggers and impulses and habit patterns of when and why I tend to relapse is not enough either, just like how scientists who can predict an earthquake or tidal wave, can't stop it from happening. Maybe they can avoid going to those places where it is going to happen, but they happen from within the earth.
Examining my habits of resentment or insecurity, or of feeling greater than or less than other people, and being an external or internal control freak - however subtle - isn't enough, as I still have to work patiently, persistently, soberly and with help on changing these patterns.
Learning to give it over to a higher power...
Learning to meditate and find serenity...
Making amends for all of the crap I've fostered in my life so I can move forward with a clean slate...
Learning to break the habit of internalizing feelings, or isolating, never communicating, blaming others...
Positive affirmations, weekend retreats...
Getting a program and a sponsor...
Telling myself, "Just for today"...
Reading online and print info about addiction and addiction recovery...
Listening or reading other people's testimonials and stories about hardships and victory over addictions...
Realizing that the root causes of addictions have similar attributes regardless of whether someone prefers weed or booze, or gambling or sex or anything...
Extra rest, hot baths, distractive books, yoga, music, gardening, nutritional supplements...

None of those have ever been enough for me to quit for more than 2 days to 8.5 months over the course of 26 years of EXTREME chronic weed consumption. Every time I've gone back to smoking, no matter how long I abstained, no matter how much I had previously wanted to quit or how strongly I was convinced I would thereafter moderate, and no matter how many times I switched my job, my hobbies, my relationships, or where in the USA I lived, I would eventually return to full blown life-stopping non-stop intelligence and emotion killing weed smoking. After the first 15 years or so, even the weed (my first love) wasn't enough and I started mixing booze - something I disdained. And then during the past 5 years I pretty much always added a few drinks of hard liquor just to get that extra edge off, as even the strongest California weed was not enough to do it for me.

Seems like a pretty negative post so far, I admit. I'm just being realistic, in explaining my own habits and observations of what works for me - starting with what hasn't worked.

This time around, during my current attempt at sobriety, (I am 148 days sober...almost 5 months)...I feel stronger and more convinced than ever before that this attempt will stick. But maybe it won't. I attribute this optimism to a new approach:
I am combining every single thing on the list at the same time!!!!
Plus I'm adding a new ingredient I've never tried: service. When I feel crappy, or jonesing, or great, or anything in between, I'm extending my energy - in person and over the phone, sometimes online - to other addicts, in the form of a listening, sharing and in encouraging and teaching about all the other tools above (tools which were insufficient on their own). I'm working with other addicts. These things to get me out of my head and out of obsessing about my own problems and desires or away from self-congratulating and promoting my own ego. It isn't actually always just service to other addicts, sometimes it is service to the community, to my elders, to youth, to my marriage.
So service is new and it is helpful. On top of that, whereas before I dabbled in support groups - online and in person - this time around I've totally admitted to myself how much of a problem I have, and I've sucked it up, took a blow to my ego, let go of superioristic judgements and nit-picking about particulars, and I've started to attend numerous in person drug addiction and recovery meetings. 12 steps but also non 12 step fellowship meetings. Just people talking about it and sharing it. Bringing it to the front of my mind. I've started to work with a sponsor - and though I strongly resisted at first - it has become an enormously beneficial factor in my recovery. Yeah we have different backgrounds and ideas on higher power, yeah I judge him and dislike checking in, and dislike going to meetings sometimes, sometimes my ego says, "I got this" I don't need to do this "step work", or I don't need to list out my fucking character defects and bring them to mind as they arise throughout the day...yeah there is resistance. Through it all those, I've already been through some serious storms, ups and downs, visits from old friends, reasons to party, nostalgic sunsets, arguments with loved ones whom wanted me to relapse, and many other situations...but I've learned more about myself yet also gotten out of my self will and my head by really doing a program this time.
The program, the service AND every other top notch wonderful thing I listed above which is high calibre but wasn't enough just on its own. All of those are contributing to my daily re-set button, or my moment to moment victory.
That's just me. I know people who seem to be doing just fine with just a few of those good tools above. They are all good tools, but addiction is clever, especially when it is an addiction to something so subtle, so soft and so pernicious and slow-descending as weed. Hence, this time around, when shit got really really bad for me in my career, marriage and health, and finances and lack of happiness, I'm going all out, with a complete renunciation, and am not messing around with just trying to remember, or just throwing away my pipe, or just doing one or two of the above list.

I'm going through the exact same thing and have been four days without the pot now.

I'm finding that I am having a very hard time emotionally so I don't have an answer but am looking for one as well.

At least you are making an effort as I am.

there are days when i get high and i feel absolutely miserable, ashamed, and disappointed in myself. it's these days i wish i could remember when i'm feening for a hit...

yet i never write these feelings down and the cycle begins again. it starts with one hit and snowballs into uncontrollable intake, resulting in feeling absolutely miserable, ashamed, and disappointed in myself...

actively and continuously journal to remind yourself that being high isn't always sunshine and rainbows. refer to these pages when you're feeling awfully low, as a personal boost to stay sober.

Once again, Shortsighted, I can SOOOOOOOOO totally relate. What a grey snowball that turns out to be. Journaling has helped me a ton. I have dozens of entries here on this Daily Strength site, spanning numerous attempts at sobriety and numerous relapses. For me, before I started to attend in-person support groups, I would eventually taper off the journaling and get "addiction amnesia" and return to full blown pot smoking, even after 6 and 8 months! It is almost painful to read back and see the slow losing of steam! But with in-person support it is a whole new level of commitment. Plus, there's actual steps to recovery that help us examine why we want to distort reality to begin with.
I'm just sharing my own experience. May it work for you whatever your path and growth may be!