Nearly 4 million people in France have suffered from ringing and whistling sounds in their ears, or 'tinnitus' to use the medical term. The experience can be more or less bothersome and can last for varying lengths of time, but for 250,000 people, many of them senior citizens, tinnitus is a serious handicap that keeps them from leading normal lives. 'I think I'm going crazy,'says one sufferer. 'The worst moment is when you go to bed: the noise that comes from your own body won't let you fall asleep,' says another. 'It's so unbearable, 'says a third, 'that I sometimes think of committing suicide.' Until the last few years, physicians were completely helpless. Their response was limited to: 'We can't do anything about it, you'll just have to get used to it.' The gravity of the handicap, which cannot be seen and can rarely be explained, was poorly understood. The fact remains that most sufferers of tinnitus cannot be cured. But, as is the case with pain, which cannot always be totally eradicated but can be rendered more bearable, sufferers from tinnitus can learn to live more comfortably with the bothersome noises.
This book aims to show sufferers from tinnitus how to handle their disorder:
- Step 1: understanding what is happening, the causes and mechanics
- Step 2: learning to live with the disorder. Sometimes, it is not the noise that makes tinnitus unbearable but the emotion associated with it. Martine Ohresser offers a programme of emotion and stress management.
Step 3: knowledge of therapeutic possibilities, as well as of the necessary examinations.
To conclude, it can be said that the goal of a cure is not necessarily to obtain silence, but to become indifferent to its absence. Books such as this one can be of assistance in this process.

Martine Ohresser is an ear-throat-and-nose specialist and an otologist (a specialist in problems relating to hearing and balance). She is the founder of a centre for the functional exploration of hearing problems, in Paris.