I’ve had tinnitus and its cousin hyperacusis for about 7 years. When I first got them from a particularly loud nightclub, I had rolling panic attacks and insomnia for about the first three weeks, but then they died down to a tolerable background level.

Something brought it back in the past couple months and triggered the same reaction again.. it’s not clear what the trigger was this time, but it’s like my brain needs time to re-train itself to ignore it as background noise. It’s an emotionally exhausting process that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

The only advice I can offer to people here is to treat tinnitus like any other serious injury (which it is): take time to let your body heal, don’t push yourself too hard, don’t come down on yourself for how you got it, and don’t judge yourself for any feelings it might bring out. Get help if it’s making you depressed.

There are definitely some helpful coping strategies that people have highlighted here, particularly white noise (look into notch filtering as well), and everyone needs to find the approach that works best for them. Allow yourself to grieve; you’ve lost something - the sound of silence (at least what you used to think of as silence - most humans never experience true -inf dB). It’s easier to move on if you come to terms with it from that angle, rather than continually trying to make it “go away”.