Last updated: April 27, 2015


Health and Fitness

Man's tardiness diagnosed as 'chronic lateness'

Jim Dunbar has been diagnosed with 'chronic lateness'. Picture: Facebook.

Jim Dunbar has been diagnosed with 'chronic lateness'. Picture: Facebook. Source: Supplied

A MAN who has been late for everything in his life has been diagnosed with 'chronic lateness'.

According to the Daily Mail , Jim Dunbar has been late for work, holidays, meals with friends, left women waiting on first dates and even has to sneak into funerals long after they've begun.

Now the 57-year-old's chronic tardiness has been diagnosed as a medical condition.

Mr Dunbar's poor timekeeping was diagnosed as 'chronic lateness' at an appointment at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, which he was 20 minutes late for.

It is thought that condition is caused by the same part of the brain affected by those who suffer with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and means Mr Dunbar cannot properly gauge how long things take to complete.

In fact, many ADHD sufferers complain they struggle to keep time.

Mr Dunbar, of Angus, Scotland, still struggles to arrive on time despite his diagnosis of chronic lateness.

"The reason I want it out in the open is that there has got to be other folk out there with it and they don't realise that it's not their fault," he said.

"I blamed it on myself and thought 'Why can't I be on time?' I lost a lot of jobs. I can understand people's reaction and why they don't believe me.

"It's depressing sometimes. I can't overstate how much it helped to say it's a condition."

Some psychologists believe that chronic lateness could be a symptom of an underlying mood disorder such as depression.

A recent study of more than 200 people at San Francisco State University showed that 17 per cent were chronically late.

Those unable to be punctual displayed similar patterns in behaviour including anxiety issues and trouble with self-control.

Researchers said the problem - whether it affects a person personally or professionally - is not irreversible, however.

Psychologists recommend those affected to work to make deadlines non-negotiable, monitor how long it takes to perform certain tasks and always plan to be early.

Mr Dunbar recently tried to go to the cinema and knowing it could be a problem getting to the cinema for a 7pm showing, he gave himself an 11-hour headstart.

But he still managed to arrive 20 minutes late.

Jim Dunbar (red shirt) has been diagnosed with 'chronic lateness'. Picture: Facebook.


"I got up at 8:15am to go to a David Bowie film that started at seven o'clock. That gave me 11 hours to get ready. I knew I was going there - and I was 20 minutes late," he said.

"I get down about it and it's disturbing for other folk when you arrive late."

The former city council worker has a special clock in his living room which uses radio frequencies tuned to a national transmitter to make sure that the time it displays is always exactly right, down to the second but it doesn't help.

He has tried wearing a watch, setting his clocks fast but still hasn't found a solution.

Mr Dunbar has tackled this problem his entire life and can remember being late for school as a five-year-old and until his diagnosis last year, blamed himself.

"My family don't believe it and think I'm making excuses," he said.

"I've been late for funerals and slipped in and hid at the back of the hall. I arranged to pick my friend up at midday to go on holiday and was four hours late. He was furious because we had booked a ferry and everything.

"A friend invited me for a meal and I was more than three hours late. It has affected my entire life."

But some experts are sceptical about Mr Dunbar's diagnosis.

"The condition isn't in the DSM5 (the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) so I'm not sure you can really call it a condition," said Dr Sheri Jacobson, psychotherapist and director of Harley Therapy Clinic in London.

"Repeated lateness is usually a symptom of an underlying condition such as ADHD or depression but it can also just be habit.

"I think making everyday human behaviour into a medical condition is unwise."