Isn’t a phobia an irrational fear? Every one of those things involve pain or danger of one sort or another.
A phobia is “irrational” in the sense that you limit your activities to avoid even the most unlikely chance of encountering the feared object. It’s not irrational to run away when you see a snake, but it’s irrational to refuse to walk near any patch of grass for fear of seeing a snake.
A friend of a friend has a phobia of alligators. She lives in California, where there’s clearly no danger of them. It’s completely irrational. If they get a magazine, her husband has to go through it to make sure there’s not a picture of an alligator anywhere in it. The logo on an Izod shirt will set off a panic attack. She’s on meds and goes to therapy, which has helped a little. It sounds funny, but to her and her family it’s no laughing matter. It’s a debilitating mental illness.
Most spiders and snakes are harmless (or almost so), but a phobic person would go into panic over any spider or snake, even a garter snake or a Daddy-Long-Legs.
I’m no stranger to phobias. I still suffer from a fear of open spaces, especially certain buildings that are huge.
I also still have the remnants of a fear of choking, which has an interesting name of phagaphobia (not to be confused with homophobia). I had a choking exerience a couple of summers ago, and I became terrified of eating and swallowing. Thankfully, I saw a doctor and he put me on medication, and I’m much better now, but I still have flashbacks.