Support for WPR comes from Vernon Memorial Healthcare, announcing that the Wellness Center is now at 1130 Nelson Parkway in Vroquah, newly renovated with new equipment and personal trainers by appointment. More at vmh.org.

It's to the best of our knowledge. I'm Anne Strangeamps. In this hour, escape. Remember how it feels to be so bored or trapped or unhappy that you dream of running away? Well, today we're talking with people who know what it's like to be on the run. People who know that real escape is both harder and more complicated than it sounds.

For example, Anne Marlowe had a successful career on Wall Street and simultaneously a heroin habit.

She never resorted to selling drugs or her body.

She never hit rock bottom.

And after 10 years, she decided to quit and never went back.

So she's the antithesis of the junkie stereotype.

And Marlowe's memoir is called How to Stop Time, Heroin, from A to Z.

She told me about her first time shooting up.

It felt very benign.

That was what surprised me.

I expected heroin to have an edge to it that it didn't have. I felt very reassuring. It felt

like the best parts of a mushroom high. I think I even recognize that that's part of what made it so

dangerous that if it felt scary, it wouldn't be so seductive. Did you feel high or did you just feel happy just as though you felt normal,

but everything felt really wonderful? No, it felt beyond normal. It was very euphoric. And I'm not sure

it ever felt quite as good as it felt, you know, the first week or two of doing it. Because once you become

used to the euphoria, every cell is straining for it. Every cell is remembering its memory of

that euphoria. But the first time, it takes you completely by surprise. I know this must be

impossible to describe, but I'm always curious. When people say it made you

feel euphoric, how euphoric? I mean, how happy did you feel? Well, I would say I didn't feel

happier than I'd ever felt, even on drugs. I mean, I'd say it was like getting really, really good

news, but better than that.

...