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Record a health condition or substance use

Record a physical or mental illness, or substance use, so that the person’s symbol is shaded according to the conventions of McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020).

1 min readChecked 16 October 2026Open in the editor

Health conditions are drawn by filling parts of the person’s symbol. An illness, whether physical or mental, fills the left half, and substance use fills the bottom half. Recovery and suspected substance use change the fill in the ways that the symbols below show. The names of the conditions are also written in red under the person’s name. Both the shading and the names appear while Medical is selected on the What is drawn tab of the View menu.

Demonstration in the editor
This demonstration runs in the editor on a copy of a sample family. It does not change your own chart.

Procedure

  1. 1

    Click the person to open the side panel.

  2. 2

    Under Health, click Add a condition.

  3. 3

    Type the name of the condition, and select it from the list. A condition that is not listed is added with Create custom condition.

  4. 4

    In the status list beside the condition, select Active, Recovery or, for substance use only, Suspected.

  5. 5

    Click the small symbol to the left of the condition to set its onset, its kind, its colour and whether it is shown on the canvas.

Tip

A condition that you create is offered at the top of the list for every other person in the family, with the same name, kind and colour.

How conditions are drawn

Colour

The shading can be drawn in two colour schemes. The first option draws every condition in red, as McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020) do, and By condition gives each condition its own colour and lists each one in the key. To change the scheme, open the View menu, select the What is drawn tab, and choose the scheme beside Shading under Medical. Some sample families open with By condition already selected.