Hello coldwut: The Skeezyks isn't any kind of expert with regard to this. But my perspective would be that this depends on whether or not the fear is impeding your day-to-day life. If you fear lightening & storms but you take reasonable precautions & manage to get through them, then I would suggest it would probably not be considered a phobia. On the other hand, if you were to go hide in a closet at the first sign of a storm & not come out until it's over with... even if it means you miss work or school for example... then it seems to me it rises to the level of a phobia. Does that make sense?

I personally don't like spiders. If I find one in the house, I'm careful about how I dispatch the little bugger... it could bite... But if whenever I saw a spider I went & stood on a chair until someone else got rid of it, then I'd say I had a phobia.