The findings of this grounded theory study of Eastern Canadian family caregiving for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) provide additional evidence that the presence of both formal and informal social support often fails to make caregiving easier. At family, community, and professional levels, caregiver perception of the helpfulness of support in meeting needs emerged as the indicator of whether support is connected or disconnected. In this paper, we demonstrate and discuss the impact of connected and disconnected support on caregiver progression on the continuum from intimacy to alienation in the process of becoming strangers, the basic social process identified in the study. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.