A phobia is similar to a fear with one key difference: the anxiety they experience is so strong that it interferes with their quality of life and/ or their ability to function. Whereas many people fear spiders, only a small subsection of the population will meet criteria for a spider phobia. People who have a spider phobia often spend considerable time worrying about spiders, spend an inordinate amount of time ensuring they do not come in contact with a spider, and will avoid places and activities in order to avoid spiders.
Making a distinction between a fear and a phobia is useful because they are qualitatively very different problems.
