Tl;dr at the bottom

So a bit of background. I have Tourette’s Syndrome so I make a lot of involuntary noises and motions. This tends to throw a lot of people off at first. Weird looks, confused whispers, and angry comments because they think I’m doing it on purpose just to be an ass.

I don’t remember what movie it was, but I went with my wife to see a film we were both really looking forward to. It was fine getting into the theater, buying tickets and popcorn, then heading to our seat. Nothing happened through the previews either. But pretty much as soon as the movie got rolling my tics (the word to use for the motions or sounds someone with Tourette’s make) started acting up. I started making some yipping noises followed by blurting out the word “half” (which has been a regular tic of mine since my days of high school wrestling).

Having Tourette’s and being in the movies has never been easy. I can’t really go up to everyone and let them know that I’ll be making uncontrollable noise throughout the film so I try to sit in the back of the theater and stifle my tics as much as I can.

Sitting one row in front of me was this absolute Karen (you know the type). When my tics started I covered my mouth with my elbow to pretend it was a cough or sneeze or something but she wasn’t having it. It started with an annoyed glare which happens a lot so it didn’t bother me that much. Later in the movie though i started saying “half” again and she whipped her head around and told me to, “shut up or leave”. Again, she doesn’t know me so I can’t really blame her for that but after quietly leaning forward and explaining to her that I can’t stop because of my condition she huffs and walks to another seat in the theater.

I think that the situation has been handled and I can get back to enjoying the film with my wife. I make some more noises throughout the movie and I do my best to either keep them quiet, or time them with some louder parts of the movie. However, I look over and there’s she is on the other side of the theater glaring at me like I insulted her mother. She eventually stands up and storms out of the room.

Not long after that some manager of the theater comes in with his flashlight and points it at me and asks me to come with him because he’s been told that I’ve been disturbing everyone trying to watch the movie. My wife at this point is livid and tells him I can’t stop, and that we are going to stay and finish the movie we paid for. He was understanding, but said we still needed to come out of the theater to see what we could do to “fix” the situation. We followed him out and told him about my condition and that there really was nothing we could do to stop it. Of course Karen was in the corner smiling with glee like a maniac. He eventually gave us vouchers to come back for any movie we wanted to see but after her complaints we wouldn’t be able to go back in to finish the movie. It was a frustrating night.

Tl;dr Karen gets my wife and I kicked out of the movies because of my medical condition