Anything can happen to Naked and Afraid contestants on Discovery Channel's survivalist reality show, but Season 3 contestant, Phaedra Brothers claims Naked and Afraid distorted the storyline where she got sick during her time on the show.

Naked and Afraid leaves two strangers stranded together and exposes them to the world's most extreme weather environments with only one personal item, no food, no water and no clothes. When Phaedra joined Naked and Afraid, she knew what she was getting into and had experience relying only on her survival skills, but she was not prepared for what Naked and Afraid production would release from her episode.

The Truth Behind Naked And Afraid's Dirty Water Storyline

via Discovery Channel

Naked and Afraid Season 3, Episode 7, titled "Himalayan Hell," featured Phaedra Brothers and her partner, Hakim Isler, surviving for 21 days in northern India. In the episode, viewers saw a dehydrated Phaedra make a quick judgment call to drink from a stream of water without doing anything to "clean" the water. Phaedra was shown progressively getting weaker with vomiting and diarrhea.

Several times during the episode, the Naked and Afraid narrator asserted that Phaedra's illness was due to drinking untreated water and called it "poor decision making." There were shots of her partner, Hakim, insisting she should have waited for them to clean the water and that he would never drink from a stream of water.

According to Phaedra, her Naked and Afraid episode failed to show her partner drinking the exact same "untreated" water and suffering from no illness afterward. And Naked and Afraid's Season 3 episode also failed to mention that Phaedra Brothers was already sick before her Naked and Afraid experience even began.

Why Phaedra Brothers Was Actually Sick On Naked And Afraid

In an interview with Channel Guide Magazine, Phaedra Brothers revealed she came down with food poisoning the night before she was set to start her Naked and Afraid adventure, which caused her to start her 21 days already very sick and dehydrated.

Leading up to Phaedra's Naked and Afraid episode, the then 27-year-old mom studied and prepared for her dropoff location to the best of her ability. Knowing she would be going to India, Phaedra planned ahead and packed her luggage full of food, so that she would be full, healthy and strong before she was stranded without clothes, food or water.

However, when Phaedra arrived in India, her luggage was lost. Her packed food and nourishment was all gone, and all she had to eat leading up to her Naked and Afraid insertion day were granola bars, which didn't last very long.

"I told one of the Indian men who was a part of the crew, that I had been eating only granola bars because I was afraid of getting sick from eating unsanitary food. He said that I needed to eat protein and he made this really great chicken curry dish. I have a picture of myself with the food and I was really excited."

That night, Phaedra explains that she woke up feeling extremely sick and realized the meal she ate likely caused food poisoning.

Phaedra goes on to explain that despite being sick with food poisoning, production encouraged her to continue on with plans to be on the show.

What Happened To Phaedra Brothers During Her Time On Naked And Afraid

Shortly after her 2014 episode of Naked and Afraid aired, Phaedra Brothers came forward to share what really happened to her in the Himalayas on Naked and Afraid. Phaedra was sick from the moment she was released to survive for 21 days, but she pushed herself to overcome the illness and complete her mission.

Phaedra's illness caused tension with her partner, Hakim, early on during their 21 days, because he wanted to focus on shelter and Phaedra wanted a fire to help her warm up. Phaedra did receive medical attention on Day 4 and was diagnosed with "dysentery" but told they didn't need to remove her and she would be better in two days.

While at her lowest point, Hakim told her to just "tap out," but she refuses and is ticked that he would suggest that to her. Phaedra and Hakim continue to butt heads during their time on Naked and Afraid, with Phaedra threatening to take her fire starter and leave him behind.

Days later, Phaedra and Hakim figure out how to get past their differences and work together. They create an amazing shelter, hunt for food and survive the 21 days without giving up.

Phaedra admits that there was a lot of great moments of survival between her and Hakim that production left out of their episode.

"The episode flipped past three days when it rained constantly and implied that we hunkered down in our shelter for three days. Our shelter had sprung a leak and filled with water, and both of us were very close to tapping out. But we pulled together; we gathered firewood, we got our fire going again, and we were able to dry out and it was a huge moment for us to come together... It was amazing to me because we were both so down in the dumps — you really lose your mind out there, you think you are really going to die out there. But in reality, if you just pick yourself up you can survive. Both of us picked ourselves up off the ground and we did everything we needed to do to survive those few days. We really both pushed ourselves to the limit."

Phaedra has been criticized since her performance on Naked and Afraid, but most of it comes from the way production shaped her illness, as a rookie mistake. Phaedra grew up as a child forced to live off the grid. She knew how to survive and was ready to take control of a survival experience.

“The experience was everything I thought it would be and more. The camera crew, the producers who are out on set, the people who were working there, they don’t help you. It really is human suffering and human triumph. The people in-office, they change the experience into something else. The experience itself was everything I thought it would be and more...

Is Naked And Afraid Scripted?

via Discovery Channel

Naked and Afraid is a reality show, and like other reality shows, production has the liberty to edit and shape the footage however they deem fit for entertainment. Phaedra Brothers experienced firsthand the effects of reality television during her first time on Naked and Afraid.

"They said that if I said anything other than the storyline they picked, they would delete my online comments," Phaedra confessed to Channel Guide Magazine. "They decide the storyline. But in that particular incident, I think they thought it would be a better, more dramatic story [to say her illness was a result of drinking untreated water], but it wasn’t the truth."

While Discovery Channel and Naked and Afraid boast themselves as being more real than other reality television, they are not immune to bending the truth.

Season 3 contestant, Honora Bowen explained that Naked and Afraid showrunners scripted part of her episode, explicitly with the story surrounding her magnifying glass. They told her to lie and say it was from her father, when in reality, a crew member gave it to her. She shared that her storyline about her father passing away was decided before her episode began filming.

Season 10 contestant, Blair Braverman shared in a blog for Outside that parts of Naked and Afraid are staged, specifically with that first day. She explained that she had to take her clothes off twice, so the camera crew could capture different angles, and that they followed a script for what order to do things during the first day of filming.

Other Naked and Afraid contestants have come forward stating producers sometimes edit or stage entire fights between duos and that the show doesn't always take place in a remote area like they promote.