Tinnitus is a tragedy of its own unique dimension.  Not simply a ringing in the ears/ but an uncontrollable ringing that functions as an invasion of mental space, which then becomes a tremendous problem without a solution.
I have tinnitus, due to a farming injury: it exists because I insisted on “tough-ing it out” until the corn was planted.  As a reality: an extremely bad plan/ because tinnitus then made it impossible to continue farming after that, to any real degree.

Your instruction in this matter is simple:   the reality can be understood most simply by referencing the description by the example of “little shock absorbers” that control the input of sound into the brain being lost.  Even when the sound stops, the ringing does not.  It must lose energy on its own, a period for me in large doses of about 3 weeks, in relative silence.  The only cure is silence/ the only reality that allows silence is to remove yourself far enough from the noise not to be affected by it anymore.  THAT is extremely difficult in an agricultural community; during the fall.  But if you do not find relief (by distance)/ what you will get is suicide or deafness.  Long duration silence does help it heal a little, over time.

The most damaging sound is high frequency at or a little above the audible range for human beings.  Because it is the most invasive.  The volume matters/ but not as much as the frequency of that sound.  Even if you cannot hear it/ that does not mean high frequency noise does not exist; your ears will know.  As to the consequences of damage:   it can be from quiet ears, all the way up to a ringing high volume at noise,  levels beyond what anyone would listen to on television for instance.  They don’t go away, sometimes for weeks.  Doesn’t take more than a few seconds to cause that trouble.  Silence is the only solution/ many things cause high frequency noise:   the trouble, as in lights, transformers, computers, etc.

If your ears begin to ring harshly, and you cannot make them stop.   DO NOT stay in the area/ it does not matter how inconvenient or necessary it is to stay.  You must leave the noise, by distance;   or you can be permanently banned;   from many aspects of normal life.  If you survive the tragedy of what it is going to do to you, and your life.
I endured, because life had just taken my nephew “Jason” away/ and it seemed necessary at the time.  IT WAS NOT!  Don’t stay, if your ears are driving you “crazy with noise”/ irritating you immensely.  Your life is about to change;   your life is about to be “disabled”/ because there is going to be a list, of what you can no longer do.  Keep it in mind.
Things that did not in the past matter/ can suddenly turn on you.  Such as one of the things most destructive is a large electric motor losing its bearings; the noise is awful.   Which means machines you could use/ suddenly become machines that took your freedoms, and a friendly body,     away.