Dear Wendy,

He is acting like a child and needs to communicate with you, rather than give you the silent treatment as you have called him out!
You have bruised his ego and this will now be a stand off with him as he wants to punish you for speaking the truth.
You mentioned that he said “Criticism is how I show people that I care. I wouldn’t criticize you if I didn’t care deeply and believe so much in the fact that you have room for improvement”. He believes that he uplifts people by pointing out their flaws and by rejecting this trait of his, I am more or less saying that I have a big problem with who he is.

OMG! This is so hypocritical! He has a problem with who you are as he feels the need to constantly criticise you, rather than love you for who you are and if he leaves you, then do you really want such a man in your life that makes you feel inadequate and that you are not good enough?

If he cannot communicate to you honestly and tell you things you do that annoy him rather than criticise you constantly, he has big issues with himself as he needs to be little you so he feels better as he must be such a “perfect” guy!

Please do not accept this from him and I hope he sees where you are coming from and understands how you feel and stops his constant criticism