I also have lived with tinnitus since childhood. I am going deaf - it's hereditary and my Dad went deaf in his 20's so I am lucky to have had more time than him to hear - but the tinnitus started long before the hearing loss.
Some great things to mask it, if you find yourself needing to do so, are white noise machines and CDs. I just ordered four CDs from
www.purewhitenoise.com which only sells white noise CDs like the surf, rain, a box fan, and many other things that soothe and help people to stop focusing on the head noises.
Mine is mostly either birds chirping or static (like, actually, white noise!). It doesn't bother me too much but at night at times it is hard to sleep. So...I put in a CD and make it loop and fall right asleep and wake up to the sound as well.
During the day I don't notice it much unless it starts to be a beeping sound that continues for a long time. THAT makes me crazy!