Hey,

Kudos on joining support group.

I can somewhat relate to it. Point is, it stems from hurt in childhood, atleast in my case, where parents or anyone who matters to you are overly critical. So when anyone says anything negative about me, all that untrue criticism opens up wounds and you start getting defensive to keep the child in you from getting hurt.

I think its a good thing that we both recognize that we are being defensive. Take some time, slowly you would learn to take criticism without getting hurt. Thoughts that helped me, was telling myself, is that in every action, I am being sincere, criticism is opportunity to learn and not an attack on me.

Ofcourse addressing your hurt also helps you. I maintain a secret blog where I write about my hurt. Do try that too.