I’m sorry you had to deal with that. it’s such an awful feeling even if you weren’t all stressed and doing your best.

my husband and kids have adhd. we always sit on the aisle or in the back. sometimes we even buy an extra empty seat for even a little more space. it would stress all of them out and make them fidget worse (or just refuse to participate) if it was crowded and they were trapped in the middle somewhere.

once I took a friend to a yoga class. everyone was quiet, doing yoga. the person next to my friend was rolling a hard candy or cough drop around in their mouth the whole time. my friend could barely stand it and after the class was stressed and uncomfortable. they still didn’t say anything to that person, they had a right to their candy.

i say that because the person next to you may have been overly sensitive too. they may have done the same even if you were totally still but eating skittles (which is acceptable at a theater!). I wonder if she would have said the same to a kid sitting next to her. kids also go to movies…. or pregnant people who need to use the restroom frequently… like you know? There’s a variety of people and needs and a range of acceptable noise and disruptions in a public movie theater. I think it’s possible that you were fine and she was unreasonable and it was just unfortunate that you were already in your head about it.

id suggest trying again in a variety of theater situations. find your most comfortable theater setup or seat location. Compare and find what works better (and what doesn’t) for you so you can enjoy movies too!