User Guide · Part 2: Getting Ready

Your Diazepam Tablets and the 80/20 Smart-Taper

Your Diazepam Tablets

BenzoTaper uses Diazepam tablets of 5 mg and 2 mg. If your doctor also prescribes 10 mg tablets, tick My doctor prescribes 10 mg tablets too in Section 1 of the Taper Sheet:

• Only a 2 mg tablet is ever split, into ¼ (0.5 mg), ½ (1 mg) or ¾ (1.5 mg).
• Every one of your Diazepam prescriptions should include 2 mg tablets, because they make the small steps possible.
• Keep leftover pieces in your prescription bottle, and count them when you ask for a new prescription.

The 80/20 Smart-Taper

Many people find the last part of a taper the hardest. The 80/20 Smart-Taper gives that part more time.

• First 80%: You reduce once every Taper Period (for example, every 7 days).
• Last 20%: Once your dose is down to 20% of where you started, the Taper Period doubles (for example, every 14 days).
• Why? The last 20% of a dose is often more challenging to taper than the first 80%.
• It does not matter how often you might use the Pause / Restart / Change features of the 80/20 Smart-Taper, the sheet automatically calculates all new values for you. No other tapering sheet does this.
• On the sheet, in Section 1, you can choose a Regular Taper, and the Taper Period stays the same to the end.

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