The Trials of Living With Tourette Syndrome

Sept. 13, 2010— -- Kyle Lee was "pumped up" to see his idol Sylvester Stallone in "The Expendables" on opening weekend. But just 20 minutes into the Saturday evening screening, after he and his girlfriend settled into their seats with popcorn and drinks, the theater manager asked Lee to step outside. The manager had received a dozen complaints about Lee's verbal and physical tics.

Lee, 28, who has struggled with Tourette syndrome since age 7, had gone out of his way to choose seats to the side of his local theater in Wichita, Kan.

"I do that to be courteous. I do have a disability," he said. He recalls having perhaps three bouts of twitchy tics and throaty clicks during those opening minutes, but thought they would be drowned out by the loud action film.

After Lee pleaded his case, the manager apologized and then gave him a choice: watch from the smudge-windowed "cry room" where mothers soothe and breastfeed crying babies, or take his chances with the 10 p.m. screening and see if people would complain again.

Irate and disappointed, Lee asked for his money back, telling his equally incensed girlfriend, "Honey, just get the car ready."

Retelling the story a month after the incident still angers him: "This isn't the first time this has happened to me." When Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" came out, "I got kicked out of the exact same theater."

These humiliations cap 21 years of trying to prove himself in high school sports while being forced into special education classes despite testing high enough for regular classes.

As an adult, he's been unable to land full-time work: "Every time I go to apply, they see me 'tourette,'" he says. Today he works as a handyman.