User Guide · Part 2: Getting Ready

Before You Start: A Stable Dose and Your File

A Stable Diazepam Dose Before You Start

If you are switching from another benzodiazepine, you first get to a stable dose on Diazepam.

This happens before you start your taper.

• In the sheet, go to Section 2 - Or... I Am Currently Taking Another Medication - to get an estimated Diazepam dose. You can also click Use this for my Diazepam taper to see a sample taper, and a sample prescription to show your doctor.
• The estimate is based on publicly available information and is just that – a suggestion - and nothing more.
• Your doctor decides your starting dose, and how to adjust it while you get to a stable dose.
• Getting to a stable dose often takes about one or two weeks. For some people it is shorter, for others longer. That is normal, and it is between you and your doctor.

When to Start Tapering

• When you have a stable dose, click Clear All Fields. Then fill in Section 1 - Set Up Your Taper with your stable dose on the day you want to start.
• Already know your stable Diazepam dose? You can also type it on its own in The actual Diazepam dose confirmed by my prescriber in Section 2, and click Use this for my Diazepam taper. A taper made this way is not marked as an estimate.

Opening and Saving Your File

BenzoTaper’s 80/20 Smart-Taper is one .html file. It opens in any web browser, on a computer or a phone. It works without the internet.

• Save my progress saves a new copy of the sheet with everything you have entered.
• It saves to your Downloads folder or your default folder on your device, named benzotaper-progress-yyyy-mm-dd-hhmm.html .
• Next time, open your newest saved file. The sheet fills in your settings for you.

All chapters of the User Guide