I have the tinnitus almost all the time, it's just that volume varies. When it gets noisy in a quiet bedroom going to bed it's pretty irritating (sometimes I'll turn the ceiling fan on medium overhead just for a little white noise to mask the tinnitus a little). Most of the time I tune it out and don't think about it, but if I think about it, it's there (like right now). I wish I could get a volume knob installed (or a mute button).
It's often causally related to acoustic trauma to your ears, but it can also be related to diet, meds, history of chronic ear infection(s) (with inner ear damage or thickening/scar tissue) or other stimuli unrelated to loud noise or acoustic trauma.
I attended a couple dozen of the loudest indoor rock concerts you could ever imagine (pain level loud), before I was 23 or so, but never got the tinnitus until my 50-60s. So that's not it. Trauma to the ears is instant (think unprotected gun shot), it doesn't keep getting worse after the trauma is over. Disease may get worse over time, not trauma (injury).
People exposed to a particular noise for long periods (at a certain frequency) (like on an industrial plant floor or near constant-run machinery) can lose hearing sensitivity/acuity at that particular frequency for good. With or without tinnitus too.
Memory is still good. Though I've been walking back to where I had the thought, to remember what the damn thought was, my whole life. This is never more irritating than when you are walking back and forth between the work in one place, and the tools/materials in another place.
Also, I've been writing little notes and lists of things to do or buy or consider my whole life too. And the things on these notes are the exact things I tend to forget (thus the notes).
If you don's have a note with the wife's, mom's or other family birthdays, anniversaries, yada, you're a better man than I Gunga Din (that sh!t can get you in trouble).
When you finally reach the point of playing
Find Your Foot, your troubles are nearly over.
