I’ve never really felt unsafe, and I’ve lived by myself for decades. Probably the only time I got a little wigged was at my current place when this guy came knocking on my door after dark and then was visibly annoyed when I would not answer the door. But on the whole, no I am not worried. Bad shit may happen to me, but the chances are much much greater that nothing will ever happen to me.
The only time I’ve felt actively unsafe in my own place was when I was rooming with people who, as it turned out, were fucking insane. My “protection” was moving out and finding better people to live with. (In the meantime, while attempting to arrange this, yeah, I pretty much lived in fear.)
I haven’t felt unsafe since then and now live alone, which solves the crazy roommate problem. I’ve never felt unsafe at home due to a threat originating from outside the house. I don’t have anything around specifically for protection, but I do make a point of vetting the building’s security features before moving in. Locked security door, no ground-level windows, multiple locks on my apartment door, that sort of thing.
Well, a few years ago my neighbor had a psychotic break and tried to bust through my front door in the middle of the night, so I felt pretty unsafe at that moment. Funny thing is, I’m an archer and I had my bow and arrows ten feet away in the closet and it didn’t even occur to me to defend myself with them. I called the police and hid in the bathroom.
Yes, but only because there was an actual threat - the bloke who wanted to ‘bugger me straight’ and would buzz up on my door to say so. And also when I had a lot of - like 8 times a night - phone calls where the person would hang up. That’s quite a small proportion of the time I’ve lived alone as a woman; just being on my own hasn’t scared me.
TBH, in all my relationships I’ve been the one most likely to be able to effectively combat an intruder, which says more about my partners than me.
I have to admit that on the rare occasions when my dog’s not with me (if I’m going out of town the next day and he’s already at the sitter’s), I feel less safe but still not overly worried. I’m mostly afraid of the house ghost then…