Redeemed: A Raw and Hope-Filled Recovery Story from Kevin KohsRedeemed: A Raw and Hope-Filled Recovery Story from Kevin Kohs
Finding Hope
Kevin Coes shares a 15-year addiction story marked by anxiety, heroin, meth, fentanyl, and a failed suicide attempt, then talks about how surrender and faith changed everything. The conversation focuses on hope for families, the power of prayer, and why loving from a distance can be an act of real care.
28:28•30 Apr 2026
Redeemed and Rescued: Kevin Coes on Addiction, Faith and Three Years Sober
Episode Overview
- Addiction can grip someone from a stable, loving home; it “does not discriminate” and often starts as a way to ease anxiety and discomfort.
- Repeated rehab stays may fail if the person has not genuinely surrendered and accepted that their way isn’t working.
- Rock bottom looks different for everyone, but for Kevin it involved suicidal plans, meth and fentanyl, and a simple, pivotal question from his dad.
- Faith-based community and structure at Hope is Alive helped Kevin feel safe, joyful, and able to rebuild a life centred on a relationship with God.
- Families are urged to love their addicted loved one from a distance, setting firm boundaries and refusing to enable while continuing to pray consistently.
“Doing that is not giving up on them. It’s just what’s necessary.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol or drugs after years of chaos? This candid conversation follows Kevin Coes as he marks three years of sobriety and looks back on a 15‑year addiction that began in his teens. Kevin grew up in a loving Christian home, with private school and “everything I could have ever wanted, needed.” Yet crushing anxiety and never quite fitting in left him feeling broken inside.
When he found friends who felt like “the misfits, the punks, the hippies,” drugs and alcohol suddenly seemed like the answer.
Opiates in particular gave him a powerful sense of relief: “To me, the drugs and the alcohol were a solution… I didn’t have to feel the way I was feeling anymore.” Host Amy LaRue gently walks him through arrests, heroin use, heroin and later meth and fentanyl, and a failed suicide attempt where his car spun through a fence instead of ending his life.
Several rounds of treatment followed, but Kevin admits he “wasn’t ready to surrender” and kept chasing immediate comfort. Everything changed when his dad found him after a multi‑day binge and simply asked, “What are we going to do?” Kevin describes that moment as a spiritual jolt: for the first time he said, and meant, “I’ll do anything. I’ll go anywhere.
Please help me.” From there he went to rehab and then into Hope is Alive, where he felt safe and unexpectedly joyful: “This is the happiest I think I’ve ever been… I’m just excited to wake up and do life.” The episode is especially aimed at families who feel worn down and frightened by a loved one’s addiction.
Kevin shares hard-won advice about setting boundaries: “You have to love your addict from a distance… Doing that is not giving up on them. It’s just what’s necessary.” Amy closes by challenging families to fully surrender their loved one in prayer. If you’re exhausted, scared, and still hanging on to hope, this honest story might be exactly what you need today.
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.
Related Episodes
Similar episodes from other shows in the catalogue.