"Why Can’t You Just Stop?" is a human-centered documentary that reframes relapse as more than a setback. It is the quiet force shaping nearly every recovery journey.
 

Instead of following a single story, the film places relapse itself at the center, revealing the emotional, cultural, and systemic pressures that make it so persistent and so misunderstood.

​

Filmed across communities throughout the United States, the documentary blends intimate interviews, expert insight, and lived experience. Voices from faith-based programs, public health leaders, and marginalized or often unheard communities help reveal what relapse actually looks like. Collectively, these perspectives illuminate our Six Realms of Relapse: emotional, medical, structural, cultural, environmental, and social.

The result is a cinematic, layered examination of why relapse happens even when treatment, resources, and hope are present.

 

This film challenges assumptions, dismantles stigma, and invites audiences to see relapse not as personal failure, but as part of a deeply human struggle for identity, connection, and long-term healing.