Getting Off: One Women's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction - Erica Garza (Review)

Getting Off: One Women's Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction by Erica Garza
Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir 
Publication date: January 16th 2018
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Hardcover, 192 pages
How I got it: Simon & Schuster Marketing for an Honest Review
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My rating: 4/5 

A fiercely courageous account of one woman's unflinching, raw, and ultimately hopeful journey through sex and porn addiction.

For almost two decades, Erica Garza was consumed by a singular, secret, shame-fueled pursuit that threw her life into chaos: orgasm. Back-braced, isolated, and teased in adolescence, and ambivalent about her Catholic upbringing, Garza found a secret solace in masturbation and porn--first by way of the limited softcore viewing offered by late-night cable, and, later, with the booming proliferation of online porn.

In this wrenching, vivid account, Garza explores her sexual fixations and relives the series of disastrous relationships and one-night stands that haunt her as she runs from one side of the world to the other in a futile attempt to break free of her habits―from East Los Angeles to Hawaii and Southeast Asia, through the brothels of Bangkok and the yoga studios of Bali to disappointing stabs at twelve-steps, therapy, and rehab back home.

Garza's terror at digging so deeply into her history to understand her anxieties is palpable, as is her exhilaration when she begins to believe she might just be free of them. And yet there is no false hope or prepackaged sense of redemption. Even her relationship to the man she will ultimately marry is credibly rocky as it finds its legs with several false starts, making her increasing sense of self-acceptance and peace by journey's end feel utterly earned.

In exploring the cultural taboos surrounding sex and porn from a female perspective, Garza offers a brave and necessary voice to our evolving conversations about addiction and the impact that Internet culture has had on young women.

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My thoughts:

This book contains adult themes.

This book follows Erica Garza on her journey to discovering her addiction of orgasm.   Erica opens up about her addiction and takes us from the beginning to present day.  We get to travel along with Erica through time to see how she got to this point in her life.

I think it is important to note, not ever path to addiction is the same and not everyone’s path to recovery will be the same.  I enjoyed getting to see the perspective of Erica’s thoughts on different events in her life and how they affected her addiction.  I also liked how honest she was when people told her she had a problem, but she didn’t think she had a problem.  I find reading memoir’s where the author feels genuinely authentic to be refreshing and makes reading more enjoyable.

Erica has traveled around a lot and meet a lot of different people along the way.  I enjoyed getting to hear the places that Erica has been and how she thinks these places also affected her mindset.   The journey that Erica took is not one that many one travel along so it was interesting to hear about the different places she got to visit and stay for periods of time.

Another great aspect of the book was getting a hard look at the relationships that she had with her family as well as friends that she crossed paths with.  I enjoyed getting to read about these relationships and hear her reflections on how they have affected her in the long run.  Erica took her time to evaluate her relationships and give the reader as much details and thoughts as possible.

I would suggest this as a weekend read.  I could sit down and read this one relatively quickly because I found the author’s voice to be honestly refreshing.   It was an easy story to follow along with and paced nicely through the author’s life.

I received a copy of this book from Simon & Schuster Marketing to provide an honest review.  This does not affect my opinion of this book. 

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About the Author

Erica Garza’s essays have appeared in Salon, Narratively, BUST, Good Housekeeping, and the Los Angeles Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University. Getting Off, her memoir on sex addiction, is her first book. Born in Los Angeles to a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother, she has spent the majority of her adult life traveling and living abroad. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

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