This study aims to figure out what the relationship and meaning of the ways that a family treats a family member with a chronic mental or physical illness. The exploration of the way those with a chronic illness are treated since their diagnosis is important to understand the perceptions, behaviors, and communication that surrounds illness. Chronic mental illness will be analyzed against chronic physical illness to assess similarities and differences in family behaviors. Participants included individuals selected from local support groups based on their illness as well as family structure. An ethnographic study would be used to compare both the verbal and nonverbal relationship between the ill family member and the rest of the family.