The study deals with the beliefs that relatives of alcohol and drug dependent persons, and representatives from social services have to the various forms of support available for the relatives. Those who participate in the study points out that there are many people who have a need for support as a relative of an alcohol or drug addicted individual, but that there are circumstances that make them choose not to seek assistance. The study shows that the relatives can experience a reluctance to seek support from social services because of how the organization looks like. The study is qualitative, where the collection of the empiric material has consisted in six semi-structured interviews. Three of them have been with relatives of alcohol-or drug-dependent persons and three have been with social workers in various professions, whose work consists of helping both the relatives of people with alcohol and drug dependence as well as people who are dependent. The empirical material has been analyzed according to the theories of Stigma and Us and them, both of which occur in the field of symbolic interactionism.