Just learned about the National Autistic Society, and I'm not sure what it actually helps me with?

If you do the autistic pattern recognition thing the I suggest you stick with using the site for a while and see what patterns you detect and what patterns you are involved by/in.  Then decide what you'd like/need to get out of it and engage with that part of the pattern.  There is an expression that says you get out of life what you put into it.  Just be nice to others and yourself along the way I suggest.  All the best.

Most people on here are autistic or neurodivergent in one way or another. Some people come to ask advice about their kids, parents etc who are also on the spectrum. You’ll get out of it as much as you put in, there’s a lot of interesting and intelligent people here. 

The articles on the main website are to raise awareness of autism and encourage acceptance of it, plus advice for autistic people and their families, friends and carers.

This forum is an online community of members - some are parents, relatives or friends of autistic children or adults seeking advice, but there are also many autistic adults like yourself.

As others have already said, we autistic adults use this forum for mutual support, sharing useful ideas &  knowledge, talking about what interests us and sharing experiences. 

Within the main website there is an area designed for Autistic adults:

www.autism.org.uk/.../autistic-adults

I find both helpful - NAS articles and tge forum. With the NAS articles I was surprised to recognise,  that the autistic traits and symptoms are exactly what I struggle with since my childhood,  around 80% of it. Then I also found some advice for example how to talk to others about the diagnosis. Which I don't have, but anyway I found many of these articles helpful and advice from other users here too. And I also found here pen palls. Speaking for myself only- there is a lot I got out of this site.

Welcome Moth

I agree with profdanger 

The community on this forum is a wonderful thing because it is a community where we interact.

People step up and help others through offering suggestions and talking about their experiences. 

Some people share interests and hobbies. 

I can’t speak for the articles on this site, since I haven’t perused them much, but I can say that the majority of what’s posted on the forum is by Autistics for Autistics. So if there is anything that you can get out of the website it is community. I have learned so much about Autism by perusing the forum. For example, I was unaware of how prevalent alexithymia is among Autistic people until I met some people that identify as such on here.

Every once in a while we get questions posted by NTs about NDs, but it’s primarily our Autistic folk that answer those questions.