My tinnitus started before I was in my teens--and gradually got worse. It is most intense after dinner, when sitting in front of the computer. Caffeine is mentioned as suspect, but that's not going to change. (Not giving up my two daily mugs of coffee)...!
Described above as "
internal white noise",
my answer has been to provide
external white noise. (Fan or space heater). It masks the ringing until it can be ignored. (Just now, the ringing has started up again, simply thinking about the topic).
I had a particularly difficult session with tinnitus when, as a teenager, I skiied to our family's empty lakefront cottage. It started as a windless, bright, and sunny day. This was in the "dead of winter", when everything was covered with deep snow. Since snowmobiles weren't a "thing" back then, the
silence at the cottage was driving me crazy. All I could hear was my ears assailing my head from within!
I left immediately, shuffling off on skis, for the eight-mile return to Wolfeboro. (Over the lake ice, having seen nobody for hours, and feeling the thick ice rumbling like thunder under my skis).
Particularly
distracting (which is an important relief for tinnitus) was a sudden black cloud cover--a strong headwind had come up--accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature from 40° to about 0°!
.