I think it is very individual specific. I can give you my own experience. I have suffered with classic tinnitus (high frequency ringing) since I was about 12. Mine was caused by some jackass that thought it would be funny to light an M80 in an enclosed bathroom and throw it into the stall that I was pissing in.
Over the years it has been stable, there when things were quiet, but easily masked by normal daily noises and no effect on my listening. In the past couple of years it has gotten worse and louder, but variable. About a year ago it was pretty loud for a few weeks and loud noises were painful, then went back to normal. It again flared up a couple of weeks ago, louder than ever, to the point that I am hearing the ringing all day long, even over music and am sensitive to moderate to loud sounds. Hopefully it will calm back down. Despite this, I can still hear a 16k test tone at 47 years old.
I know that everyone is different. Different people hear different sounds. Different people are aggravated by different noises, some high SPL levels, some high frequencies, some bass, some everything. It can also get better or worse. I had a doctor years ago who had a horrible case, it was painful for her to hear anything louder than whisper and lasted more than a year. She could find nothing that triggered it.