How long you had T TuneOut? I remember feeling exactly the same as you. I've had T since I was around 19, and I'm 36 now. I was gigging in bands, watching bands, and going to bars and clubs frequently without plugs, and then one day just over 3 years ago my T went crazy. It was horrendous, and a very dark time in my life. I've got a shrill, high pitched dentist drill in my head, different pure tones in both ears, and various hissing and static noises underneath it all.
I became quite phonophobic after reading a lot of threads on here. I was scared to do anything and was leaving my house with earplugs in all the time. All I can say is that my T had consumed me; it literally took over. I became so obsessed it was all I thought about, non stop. I saw a few audiologists and they told me point blank to stop using earplugs when I wasn't being exposed to loud noise. At first I didn't listen because of how much I'd come to fear sound, and my limbic system was all over the place. It was reacting to anything and everything. I'd have a spike just by thinking about a loud noise, it was bad.
In the end, I knew something had to change because I wasn't getting any better, at all. I was depressed and anxious all the time, and was scared that a loud sound might occur and make it worse. However, I've come to realise now, looking back, that I had conditioned my nervous system to be hypersensitive; I was on edge all the time. Especially whilst out and about. I decided something had to change because I was at my wits end, and just couldn't take anymore. So, I stopped wearing earplugs everywhere and stopped monitoring my environment. This took a looong time. It certainly didn't happen over night and there were many set backs along the way. Now that I'm not hiding in the shadows and my life is blossoming again, my parasympathetic nervous system has calmed down, and so has the hold that T has over me.
I'm not stupid around noise, but I'm not too extreme as to avoid living either. Since I changed things up in my life, and I started to do better, I came back here to post about it so I could potentially help others. In my opinion we have to learn to put T back in its box, and certain behaviours keep its importance a priority. If you live in fear all the time then that's definitely one way to keep the noise drilling into your soul.
I've gone from feeling suicidal to having a relatively normal life again. I am VERY cautious around noise in loud bars and whilst using the lawnmower, for example. If a place is too loud I will leave; it's as simple as that. I always use my custom earplugs in noisy places and I use my muffs for any power tools.
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