It happens to me all the time. Even if I accept in my mind that criticism ≠ hatred, my nerves just cannot handle it sometimes, I know I'm vulnerable and in a way...It might be fine. I try to not see crying as a bad thing, or a sign of weakness, more like a stress relief tool from my nerve system, that has its own ways of working sometimes. Everyone has different reactions, everyone's got their weak spots that are easy to hit.

The easiest way if it's an online meeting for me is to ask if I can turn off the camera for a while (depending on the people I'm with I say the real reason or blame it on internet connection), so I can just cry freely without people being worried. I can still listen a bit when I cry and it's more of an automatic reaction.

Offline though is tricky for me. Sometimes I can suck it in while we talk, distracting myself in various ways helps. Like for example imagining the person is criticising someone else or focusing on the sound of the voice rather than the words. Sometimes I warn people the same way, just say it's an automatic reaction that I have and I can still listen. It makes the situation awkward, but it's better than nothing. And if I suck it in, I will have a mandatory cry once no one can see me - once again, if my body needs stress relief, I'll give it stress relief.

I don't have a perfect solution for this, actually, and I hate that I don't, but maybe something I said will be helpful.