Tongue tickler, lol. Bam, you are one of the funniest people in this forum, no doubt about it. I actually read your story last night as I was waiting for my psychologist and you have my deepest sympathies. I think this wretched disease has deprived us from a pretty funny comedian or writer in your instance. Noel seemed to have a very laissez faire attitude towards it in an interview I heard, but I'm not surprised that's not how he really feels.
I have completely hidden it from work, when I had to take a lot of time off to do the HBOT, I let them know I had a health issue, but didn't elaborate. I don't particularly like sharing personal information with colleagues to begin with, but tinnitus is so misunderstood and they would probably feel like it was self inflicted and therefore not worthy of sympathy, and certainly not something that will de debilitating longer term.
I have let my friends know, though, but I know better than to look to them for sympathy, I think I will try to keep most of my T conversation to the good people of this forum. My girlfriend is showing very little in the way of sympathy or understanding that I can't just snap out of this and be like I was before. Even if I habituate, it's not a simple switch. It seems to me that it is a gradual process that sometimes slips as spikes or new trauma occurs.