I was having an issue with loading my game earlier and seemed to find whatever the issue was as I'm now able to load my game just fine. But when I play I noticed (I think this was happening before the previous issue and I just didn't notice) that the motives are not moving. They all started almost full and stayed there. My skills are also not increasing.
I tried the mailbox method of making motives static then back to dynamic. I tried testingcheatsenabled true then resetsim. I also tried resetting sim with Master Controller. I tried moving the sim to another lot then moving it back then resetting it again. All nothing. Nothing has worked. All of my sims have this problem including the dog. When I reset the sim it's motives would go down a bit but then go back up. Except energy stays low but still doesn't change. I can move the motives up and down with my cursor and then fill them back up by fulfilling the need but then it just stays up.
I also ran all my mods through Sims 3 Dashboard and removed all the ones with issues.

Have you tried resetting the entire town with Master Controller? If it's a problem with another sim stuck somewhere that may fix it, It's worth a try.

If you've got the most recent version of AwesomeMod from a few days ago, then this might be the reason for the problem. There are already some reports at MATY about this.

Aww man, does that mean I have to delete Awesomemod? I did indeed download it a few days ago. )=

Edit:I just tried resetting the town with MC and city hall and it didn't work so I'm going to try removing Awesomemod for now.

EDIT again:
Went ahead and removed Awesomemod and deleted all my cache files. I also deleted some random files that appeared the other day (ScriptError_DESKTOP-06VV1K4__03-17-2016__05-31-52__69AC6C54) that didn't seem to belong. Though maybe they do because now my game is stuck on the black loading screen. I know deleting cache can make loading the game again slower but it's getting excessive.

I have used Awesome Mod since it first came out and I don't have any problems with it. Did you use the config file for it? I make sure that AM doesn't conflict with the commands given my my Nraas mods. (Example: I use Nraas story progression so I have it turned off in AM.)

There's a newer version of AwesomeMod now that seems to have fixed the issue.

So, I went and re-downloaded Awesomemod and got the config file as well. Then once for good measure reset all my sims and their skills increase again and their motives do as well though very slowly but I think that's because of Awesomemod which I'm fine with as long as they do go down.

There is an option in AM config for motives. Make sure you aren't conflicted with another mod for motives?

Encountered a similar issue WAY far after this thread was created. My issue has nothing to do with Awesomemod (as I've never used or heard of it before), so it's almost certainly a different issue, but I thought I should reply with how I fixed my issue in case someone else goes searching for a fix with no result and this is the first thread they could find (because that's what happened to me, and i had to figure it out myself).

I was having a similar issue as OP- my Sims' needs were locked at maximum and weren't decaying. I had been toying with Nraas StoryProgression settings and put the household in "stasis" mode at one point while I had a different household active, and I returned to the original household before I disabled stasis. I turned off stasis from the Household Options menu, but the needs were still locked. I managed to fix it by entering Edit Town mode and selecting "change active household", then choosing my original household again. I don't know whether entering Edit Town Mode is what did it, or if it was the manual de-selection of the household as Active, but it fixed it and their needs are no longer locked. I hope this is helpful for someone else later down the line.

I used to bump into similar problem with NRAAS Story Progression and rotational playstyle, but I fixed it Master Controller reset everything command (computer/town hall - Nraas - Master Controller - Town - Reset Everything)

I just had the same issue pop up again so I tried "Reset Everything" like you suggested. It didn't work... and neither did changing the active household I guess I'm just doomed to play without Stasis for the time being.

edit: never mind I am Stupid™ and had Stasis turned on in the caste settings by mistake. I'm good now.