Tinnitus

At the beginning of the year I went to Camden to see a gig. The small venue was quite full and pretty soon I found the only spot I could stand in where I could see the band and avoid spilling my pint was at the side of the stage right next to the left hand P.A speaker.
Now I don't know why I did this, for god knows it was loud! Just for the record, you know the sound is too loud when the vocals distort so much that it actually sounds electronic, like a vocoder thing or that effect Cher used on that song a while back. You also know it's loud when your ear next to the speaker starts to hurt. You definitely know it's loud when someone shouts into the ear that isn't next to the speaker and it hurts - but you still can't hear them.
After giving up on blocking out the sound by holding my hand over my lughole, I then think about moving into the crowd. I look over. Several people are drunkenly bouncing through the crowd bumping people - all good natured I might add. However I'm a little skinny bloke. Not only this, but as I look on some guy who's bouncing around, bumps into a mod fella (this was a Jam tribute gig) who then gives him a friendly shove in the opposite direction. I look around and suddenly there's a girl on the floor with a half full pint still in her raised hand. Images of me going over with a pint glass in my back flood into my mind and I stick where I am.
To cut a long story short, I leave after 2 hours plus of aural bombardment, at which point I can't hear too well out of my left ear and get the train home. Because of the noise on the train I don't really notice the ringing in my left ear. I get home and it's still there. I go to bed and in the morning it's still there. I've never had tinnitus that didn't disappear after an hour, this is worrying and it's driving me nuts. The funny thing is, only a few weeks before they had mentioned tinnitus in college!
Over the next 5 days I become convinced it's not going to go away, thankfully I was proved wrong. Or was I?
For the past week or so the ringing is back every night. I don't know whether it's always been there and I'm just noticing it now, or it has really come back. It could be an electrical frequency in my house like the TV, but maybe it's the quiet that's causing it.
Whatever the case, it's not too bad, but it does worry me that at age 23, I've already potentially damaged my hearing for good. And considering I want to play music for a living, could I wind up like Clapton, Townshend and Entwistle?
Strangely as my love of The Who and respect for Pete Townshend has grown, so has the amount of people who tell me I have a resemblance to him. Probably the nose I say. But I once had a perfect straight little nose. Could it be that I've changed my appearance subconsciously with the power of my mind as my love of Pete's work has developed? If so maybe I'm causing my own deafness as well......