What if I am just imagining the high pitch sound in my mind whenever I hear about or think of tinnitus just like how someone tells you to imagine a whale and you form a mental image of a whale? I don’t pay attention to the noise while I’m busy doing stuff but once I think about it, it is as hard to stop noticing it similar to being told to breathe manually, and it gets very annoying after some time. Is it what tinnitus really is?
I feel your pain. I was in bands for years. I finally wised up and started wearing ear plugs, and then retired from live music. I think distraction is the key. If I focus on it / obsess over it, it gets worse. If can distract myself it goes away pretty quickly. The trick is to finding an activity that distracts you reliably. Maybe save that activity for when you need it, so you don’t get bored with it.
There’s another mental trick I do when I get hit with it in the middle of the night. I will visualize a pair of faders as vividly as I can in my mind. Like the slider controls you see on a sound board. I imagine these faders as being hard-wired to the “channel” that is making the sound. In my mind’s eye, I slowly turn those faders down. I know this sounds like woo-woo bullshit, and it is woo-woo bullshit. But for some reason it helps me. Or maybe I’m just distracting myself enough for it to fade on its own. But it feels very real to me when I’m half-asleep and annoyed by the noise.