Then you been around war and drugs. Not to be confusions with that war on drugs scare in the 80s. But each his own brother. I try to always look at the horizon, the calm, before getting into something solitary.
I'm not really afraid of spiders, definitely not enough for it to count as a phobia, I just really really really don't want them touching me. I could be in a room full of spiders in cages and be just fine. I think they're fascinating. I just also think they're gross. =P I'm not afraid of snakes at all, I've owned a few as pets as a kid and would again if I had the money and space for a proper terrarium. I'm not going to be screwing around with poisonous members of either animal, though.
"One could also ask how it can be a phobia to be afraid of something that is dangerous, like heights for instance?"
Plenty of phobias are phobias. A phobia is different than a fear in that it is a persistent and irrational fear.
For instance, I have Thanatophobia, it is the fear of death.
(Preface: I have BPD and ASPD, so my reactions to things aren't the normal reactions to things, my Thanatophobia manifests through my ASPD and BPD, so don't think that all of the following is typical of Thanatophobics who don't have compound personality disorders) Now, everyone is afraid of death, but most people only think about it when they see death, or when they are in danger etc. and the rest of the time, people go around, more or less, in a state of profound denial, just not thinking about death.
My PHOBIA of it means that, basically, my "denial" button is broken. At any given moment, my mortality will jump frnot-and-center in my mind. I will start worrying about the afterlife, about what will happen when I die. I become paranoid about every decision I have made, have I eaten the wrong kind of foods, not been careful enough about my cholesterol? Do I have an air bubble in my veins that could become a pulmonary embolism at any moment?
Other people get a toothache and think about seeing a dentist. I get a toothache and go into a four-hour-long panic attack, terrified that I have an infection that is going to go up through my gums and into my brain. Other people get gas pains and think about the beans they ate, I get gas pains and worry that my appendix is about to burst and that I will die from sepsis before I can get to the hospital. Sometimes I take hours of laying in bed, thinking about things, trying to quiet my mind and argue with myself over which is more unsafe, missing more sleep (because you can die of sleep deprivation) or having an emergency situation and not being able to address it because I am asleep.
I read a news story about a healthy, young man who masturbated to death (heart attack) and now every so often when I get going, I'll freak out in the middle of it because I'll suddenly worry that I'm over taxing myself, and nobody wants to be that guy who got found dead with his dick in his hand. Of course I then end up stopping because who'd still be in the mood after thoughts like that? (Fucked up paradox- I'm obsessed with gore, skeletons, murder and all things involved with death, and even more paradoxically, I'm turned on by edge play. XD)
I get ANGRY at the universe for death having to exist. I get pissed off at science that we haven't cured death. I become enraged, sometimes, that I am helpless to prevent it. Movies about immortals or people cheating death (vampires, gods etc) depress me and make me frustrated, envious and angry.
If I am in a BPD moment I might even go off the deep end and start talking to the ceiling, making bargains with gods, devils and demons. Offering servitude, offering to collect souls and all kinds of seriously insane shit, in exchange for youthful immortality.
The "irrational" part of a phobia might not be the thing the person is afraid of, it might be their reaction to the thing. "Rational" phobias are the hardest to deal with, because if, for instance, I had Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (the guy who named this one was a sadistic bastard, lol!) then I could be shown that there is no reason to fear long words. However, death is a rational thing to fear and avoid, so it is much harder, if not impossible, to fix such a phobia. Because my fear is of dying at any moment, and the plain truth is that I could die at any moment, it's just not a sane or practical to live in constant fear of it, but that's what makes it a phobia.
Fear is useful. Phobias are what happens when fear goes off it's rocker.
EDIT:
As a side note, I think there is an understudied branch of "phobias" that are an extreme aversion, rather than fear. Social phobias would fit into this class.
For example, homophobia.. The "homo" in homophobia isn't the Latin "homo" that means (roughly) "man", it is the Greek "homo" that means "same". Homophobia is a fear of (or, in actuality, an AVERSION to) being or being thought of as the same as gay people.
Another type (and one I happen to have myself which is the precise reason I have looked into this subject), one that is not officially classified among phobias, despite it's widespread nature is Trypophobia. The "fear" of clustered holes.
Ask any trypo, we are not afraid of the holes, the holes don't scare us; it would be much more accurate to say that they squick us at a molecular level. It is an EXTREME disgust and aversion, some people even get nauseous from seeing it. The few people who have studied it have linked it to a self-defense mechanism. Apparently, in trypos, clustered holes are perceived as a sign of disease or rot and our brains fill our bodies with an intense feeling of revulsion and disgust to make sure we don't expose ourselves to it.
I imagine that many medieval trypos survived the plague by skipping town and living in caves alone until the whole thing was over, lol.
P.S.
I know I'm all kinds of fucked up, if you know any really ballsy psychiatrists or psychologists who like a challenge, give me their number, lol.