A little anecdote to illustrate my question: Say I've been an aspiring poet all my life but I've never dared to tell anyone. Then the local TV station has an anonymous poetry contest. Since I've by now written a lifetime's worth of poems, I enter the one I consider the very best.
However, to my utter horror, at the night of the screening, my poem is analyzed and burned down to the ground. Which would of course sadden me very much.
But it's not just saddening. It's more than that, as I actually considered poetry one of my strong suits.
What is the word capturing this emotion? My best guess would be crestfallen, however this can only be used as a past tense "adjective verb" (I'm not sure that is the proper term, so if I'm wrong please tell me).
Is there a word that I could use in the present tense? So the sentence would look something like this:
The analysis of my poem was very <insert word here> to me.
My closest guess for this case would be humiliating. However, that has the implication of it being a public thing.
Disclamer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. 😉
Best Answer
I would use "deflate".
e.g. I knew I had done an amazing job so I was really deflated when it was criticized.
To address some of the other suggestions