Co-worker with Tourettes drove me up the wall

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So. Up until last week I had a co-worker with High Functioning Autism and Tourettes. We both worked in the same office, about two meters from each other.

He drove me mad.

Why? He couldn't stop drumming on things. Responding to everything that got said around him even if it was not meant for him. He often played games on his computer during work time which was a huge distracting factor for me. It seems he would always find a way to produce sound. His body odor could be smelled from half a room away.

A few times I asked him to stop. Sometimes he'd flat-out say no. Sometimes he'd say 'Okay' and stop. Often he blamed his Autism. This ticked me off a fair bit. I have learned how to cope with most of the anxiety and issues that being on the spectrum brings and I try to hide it for everyone to appear social. The same thing we do to appear a good boyfriend and a reliable house mate, friend, and son. My boss doesn't know of my disorder, but I suspect he's aware I'm a bit of an odd ball.

When I flat-out asked him to stop gaming he had a go at me. "Well, you browse Reddit and Facebook too sometimes!" I got told I'm not his superior. That he can decide to go on a break whenever he wants, and that this is his break. That I'm lazy myself etc.

I was petrified. I just wanted to stop him from distracting me and to a lesser degree stop him from getting fired. Before that I felt like we got along well.

So why this post? I might have just needed to rant. Maybe I'm seeking confirmation that I'm not the crazy one. I don't know any more.

I see legitimate complaints about your coworker, but there also seems to be some resentment mixed in (I try hard to fit in, so why doesn't he?). Try to address the distraction problem, but you're not responsible for your coworker' s productivity. If there are repercussions, just remember he made his own bed.