164 BRITISH SOCIAL ATTITUDES

Figure 7.2 Contact with formal emotional support ever, by age group

100


80



60


40



20

0
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+

Any formal GP Any psy/therapist

If we focus only on formal service use in the past year, a similar pattern
emerges. It shows a clear peak in formal service use in middle age (specifically
45–59), perhaps reflecting need. After all, numerous studies have identified a
‘u-curve’ in well-being that suggests that one’s middle years are the most
difficult in emotional terms (Clark, 2007; Blanchflower et al., 2008). However,
it is likely that there is also a cohort effect here; in other words, that the
emotional difficulties experienced in mid-life by those born in the period
between, roughly, 1945 and 1965 may be combining with a greater sensitivity
to, and awareness of, counselling and its possibilities. The figures for ‘last year’
use of talk-based therapies among the youngest age group suggest that demands
on these services will continue to rise, as larger numbers of people enter their
‘difficult’ middle years with existing experience of talk-based emotional
support. In this respect, it could be argued that those who identify an emergent
therapeutic culture are simply anticipating future developments. There is,
however, no doubt that they overstate the extent to which it currently defines
contemporary experience.
However, age is not the best predictor of past use of formal emotional support.
The most powerful predictor of use is a low score on our mental well-being
scale, or having had experience of serious mental health problems within the
last five years. So formal service use appears to be associated more with actual
need rather than with what might be characterised as a more voluntaristic
“project of the self” (Giddens, 1991). This may partly explain why gender does
not predict use of formal emotional support, as despite the fact that women are
generally much more predisposed to emotions talk, men and women do not
differ significantly in terms of mental health problems or their mental well-
being.
Given this link, we might expect to find a higher level of service use among
poorer groups, as they are more likely than affluent ones to experience mental
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