Steven Spielberg recalls having nightmares and PTSD from making 'Jaws'

Steven Spielberg is opening up about the aftermath of directing Jaws in the new National Geographic documentary Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story.

Spielberg suffered immense anxiety while directing Jaws, a costly movie made on a huge scale. 

At the time, the director was a 26-year-old newcomer and eager to prove himself.

However, it ate him when the film went 100 days beyond its original schedule and significantly over budget. 

The director began suffering symptoms of anxiety and later suffered from PTSD.

"I think I just lost it," confessed Spielberg.

The film used three enormous fiberglass sharks to portray the man-eating fish on-screen, but they were made for freshwater, and the film had to be shot in seawater, so that led to delays. 

Meanwhile, actors Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss had a hard time getting along, further stressing the director.

There were also the difficulties of filming on water, as James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) noted, "It doesn't get twice as hard — it instantly gets five times as hard."

On top of everything, the studio began to get restless and pressured Spielberg to get on with the mega-budgeted film. 

He held it together long enough for the adventure-horror to finish filming, and then came the panic attacks.

"When the film wrapped Martha's Vineyard, I had a full-blown panic attack," he said. 

"I couldn't breathe, I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn't get a full breath of air. I kept going to the bathroom and splashing water on my face. I was shaking," the filmmaker recalled.

"It was everything that I had experienced on the island, trying to hold myself together, but hold the crew together. I felt really responsible for keeping them there for as long as we had to stay," he shared.

While the film was a smash hit at the box office and launched Spielberg to heights every director dreams of, "it didn't stop the nightmares."

"I had a real tough time when I finished the movie," the highest-grossing film director of all time confessed.

When it was time to enjoy the fruit of his labor, the director was instead waking up in the middle of the night, with cold sweats that left "the sheets soaking wet."

Steven Spielberg is widely known as one of the greatest directors of all time and his career essentially began with Jaws.