@benjamincox This is such a great question. I’m tagging the group tag @actuallyautistic so that your post (asking how autistic people explored their autism) gets seen by a few more people.
I’m in the UK and discovered I’m autistic in 2021. I stumbled across the idea that I’m autistic by joining a university webinar about neurodiversity, which I knew nothing about beforehand. (I thought it would be about neuroscience!) That webinar had staff and students from all around my uni talking about their first-person experiences of being autistic (and/or: ADHD, dyslexic, etc). That obviously worked well for me to start me off on this journey.
Might be worth considering what format you’d like to learn about (your) autism. Live webinars, videos, books, blogs, social media conversations, podcasts, in-person chats with other autistics… the options are endless. I could reel off a few ideas for each one, but there’s a lot!
I was initially drawn to learning from other autistics who shared a similar characteristic to me. For example, female and/or similar age and/or a university student, etc. Starting this way helped in the early days of learning about myself. For example, I enjoyed Katherine May’s autobiographical book, The Electricity of Every Living Thing. For tonnes of other books related to autism by autistic authors, have a browse through this amazing resource: https://autismbooksbyautisticauthors.com
I also enjoy listening to / watching interviews with autistic people talking about their general life experiences. Could be podcasts, YouTube videos, webinars, etc. Sometimes these have a tendency to oversimplify things, but I find it reassuring watching someone speak about it all.
Social media has been a massive resource for me too. I love following the hashtag #ActuallyAutistic - the group tag I used above works a bit better on Mastodon but does the same thing. (You need to follow the @actuallyautistic account and then you will see automatically boosted points that tag it). I followed people’s social media conversations and asked my own questions of the online community this way, too. I also followed people who post a lot about autism - especially autistic advocates of autism, authors, etc. There may be more of these on other social media networks like Instagram or LinkedIn now. The above hashtag is a great way to find them anywhere (but doesn’t work quite so well on Mastodon).
I also used my university account to download and read a lot of research papers on various aspects of autism. This worked for me because I’ve been studying an adjacent field with some overlaps, so I was putting what I learned in my degree to good use! I craved scientific knowledge and this really helped. It’s not for everyone, though.
For UK specific things: I love whatever Pete Wharmby shares. His books are great, and other things he shared too like posts on LinkedIn / elsewhere (sadly not on Mastodon), YouTube videos. I really relate to his way of describing things. Finding people with similar experiences to you can help unpack those experiences. After that, I recommend exploring and listening to input from the wider autistic community because you might realise we share something in common: that we’re all so unique that no one has the exact same experiences as any other. At first I found this fed my imposter syndrome, but now I want to celebrate it more and more.
For a compassion-filled view of autism by The World’s Friendliest and Loveliest Autistic Autism Researcher (ok, he PROBABLY is this, but there’s a bit of competition! Lots are friendly & lovely!), check out Dr Luke Beardon’s books. He is based at Sheffield Uni and runs a Masters course about autism, and has had lots of praise from autistic students who he has supervised. His words have helped me be kinder to my autistic self and understand myself better at the same time. Slim books in plain language.
If there’s a specific aspect of autism you’re wanting help understanding or a type of resource or anything else more specific, just let me know and I’ll see if I can suggest some things. 💗 Hope this helps, though.